Lady of the Book:Part 2
by Athena191
Summary: Sequel to Lady of the Book.After her captivity,Aurora and Legolas grow closer together.But with her terrible past and the wars that plauge his world,can love bloom, or have the Beings chosen a different fate? Set during Two Towers..COMPLETE
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask......maybe.

I also use a lot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema.

Author's Note: Hello again. I hope you all enjoyed reading Lady of the Book: Part 1 , here now is what you've all been waiting for....Lady of the Book: Part 2.

Chapter 1:

Aurora hated orcs with a passion. These stupid, smelly, creatures were less than desirable company, especially when they're throwing you around like a sack of potatoes. For two days Aurora, Merry, and Pippin had been with the orcs, traveling night and day. Aurora knew where they were being taken, Sarumon obviously had more confidence that Aurora gave him credit for...the bastard. With or without her magic Aurora would be able to kill him, and kill him she would. Letting out a groan Aurora forced one eye open, the moonlight that greeted her eye made her head throb. According to Pippin, Aurora had been unconsious for two and a half days after being thrown into that head hurt like crazy, when she opened her eyes her head hurt more, and moving body parts was unimaginable. Okay so maybe she wasn't in the best condition to fight the wizard, thanks to these stupid creatures that carried her.

"Stop!" One of the larger orcs, who seemed to be in charge, held up a hand for the group to stop." We're not going no further, 'till we've had a breather." The orc carrying Aurora dropped her to the ground without a second thought.

"Aurora?" Aurora recognized Merry's voice, and turned her head slightly in his direction. Again she forced her eye open and was greeted by the sight of Merry and Pippins concerned faces.

"Hey how's life been treating you?"

"Better than it has you, you look awful." Pippin said truthfully, though it caused Aurora to laugh. Her laughter though caught the attention of the orc guarding her.

"Look who's awake." He came to kneel next to her." Do you know where we're going?"

"To Grandmother's house?" Aurora asked sarcastically, and the orc gave her a sound slap across the jaw. "Ow! Stop doing that , I'm a witch not a punching bag!"

"I'll do with you as I please!" The orc reached for her throat, but Aurora had enough of that. She turned her head in an awkward way and bit his hand, digging her teeth deep into his skin. The orc roared and shook her loose from his hand, then reached for his sword. Another orc grabbed his arm before he could get the sword out of the scabbard.

"No! She is to be brought to Sarumon _alive. _But there are other ways of dealing with a rowdy woman." Both orcs turned and smiled at her maliciously. Her eyes grew wide and her blood ran cold out of fear, she knew what they meant.

"Oh Beings protect me......." Aurora had to wonder if the Beings were even listening, because it didn't look like the orcs were going to change their minds. She tried crawling backward, but her sore body protested every movement. Every orc was now aware of what was going on, and Aurora knew there was no escaping these horrible creatures. The orc was standing over her, an evil smile on his face. There were few times in Aurora's life when she had been truly afraid, and this was one of those few times. Terror seized her body, paralyzing her, they were going to rape her, and she couldn't stop them.

"Stay away from her!" Pippin clumsily crawled between the orc and Aurora. Aurora was surprised by Pippin's sudden boldness.

"Pip, what are you doing?" Aurora hissed at him, she knew this would only agitate the orcs more.

"It is my fault you are here, I'm atoning for what I've done." Aurora was about to respond but was cut short by the orc's cruel laugh.

"It seems the Halflings want to watch." Pippin glared death in the orcs the orc reached down to grab Pippin and move him, everyone was surprised as the orc was hit by a spear that went straight through his chest. The orc fell backward dead instantly. When Aurora turned slightly in the direction the spear had come from, she saw a legion of men on horses coming at them. She screamed and rolled out of the way of one oncoming horse.

"Pippin! Merry! Go, get out of here, now!"

Merry automatically started to argue."What about...."

"GO!" She shrieked, and she barely dodged a falling orc."I'll be fine, you have to go, who knows who these people work for." Pippin nodded, and quickly found something to cut his bonds with, then cut Merry's. With one look back at Aurora, they disappeared into the night.

Aurora sighed as she watched them run, and prayed they would be safe. She rolled over onto her stomach, and pushed herself up using her elbows. On her knees Aurora got a better look of what was going on, and it was total havoc, in the darkness it was hard to distinguish orc from.....whatever they were fighting. As quickly as it had begun, it ended, every orc was dead.

"You there! What are you doing here?" Aurora jumped at the voice behind turned awkwardly to face the man standing behind her.

"About three days I was captured along with two of my companions. We were traveling, as far as I know, to Isengard. I lost my two friends in the fight." She told him what she knew, if the Beings had mercy these people would not work for Sarumon. The man knelt in front of her and removed his helmet. He had long blond hair, and a yellow gotee. His eyes were brown from what Aurora could see, and he appeared to be of the human race.

"Are you hurt?" He looked her over for any obvious injuries.

"A couple of bruises, and a bad bump on the back of my head, but nothing more serious." Aurora paused for a moment, thinking of what to do now. She wasn't sure where Merry and Pippin were, Frodo and Sam were traveling in the opposite direction, and she had no idea where Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir were. The only thing now was to decide where to go. Elrond would need to know what happened, but Rivendell was a long way off. She could go to Lothlórien, but then she would have to face Haldir. And she couldn't just go back to New York." If at all possible, I will need assistance getting to Lothlórien, I have an urgent message."

" I will help you in any way I can." The young man said. Aurora guessed that he wasn't too much older than her. Then Aurora thought of something.

"Who are you?" Aurora asked.

"Éomer, son of Éomund, Captain of the Rohirrim. You may call me Éomer though. And what is your name?"

"Aurora Borealis. You can call me Aurora."

"Well my Lady Aurora, my men and I will escort you back to Edoras where you will be provided with all you need."

"Thank you." Aurora answered sincerely." I you don't mind, I'd like to take a minute to look for my friends."

"Of course." Éomer helped her to her feet, and even helped her look for Merry and Pippin. After a while of searching and coming up with nothing, Aurora knew they were long gone.

"They're gone." Aurora said to Éomer in a slightly depressed voice. She hoped they could take care of themselves.

"Come we must go."Éomer led Aurora back to a horse. Things had become really jumbled.

Legolas had been running for three days without rest and was not tired, anger gave him all the energy he needed to continue pursuit. Aragorn motioned for him and Gimli to stop, then he knelt down and put his ear to the earth. According to Aragorn, the three of them were gaining on the orcs. Legolas didn't care how outnumbered they were, he would kill every last one of those things. Gimli tapped his arm with his ax.

"Relax lad, we'll find them." Legolas hadn't realized his fists had been clenched until just then.

"I hope you are right Gimli." Was all Legolas could say in return. Aragorn stood up with a start, and pulled both Legolas and Gimli behind a boulder.

"What are you doing?" Legolas asked Aragorn in motioned for him to be quiet. After a moment of waiting a large number of soldiers on horses passed by them. Legolas had been so consumed in his thoughts that he had not heard or seen them coming. Aragorn stood up as they soon as they had passed and called to them.

"Riders of Rohan, what news from the Mark?" As soon as they heard Aragorn's voice they quickly changed direction to come back at them. Legolas and Gimli came to stand beside Aragorn. Legolas gave Aragorn an "I hope you know what you're doing" look before returning his attention to the riders.

The riders quickly surrounded them and pointed their spears at them. If things went bad, they had nowhere to run. As the some of the riders parted to let another, obviously higher ranked rider than them through, Legolas' agitation rose- they couldn't afford any more delays.


	2. Riders of Rohan

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask......maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema.

Chapter 2:Rider's of Rohan

"What business does an Elf, a Man, and a Dwarf have in the Riddermark?Speak quickly!" Legolas did not like the tone that this Rider was using.He needed to find the Hobbits and Aurora, _now._

"Give me your name horse-master, and I shall give ya mine." Gimli's tone showed he felt the same as Legolas. Aragorn shot Gimli a warning and put a hand on his shoulder almost as if to hold him back. The blond haired rider got off his horse and stepped threatingly in Gimli's direction.

"I would cut off your head, Dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground." Legolas did not appreciate this human threating Gimli, because while he might not call Gimli a friend he did respect the Dwarf. Within the blink of an eye, Legolas pulled an arrow out of his quiver and notched it on his bow, and aimed it at the human.

"You would die before your stroke fell." Legolas said this in the same tone the rider had used a moment before.The other riders pressed closer, their spears aimed at his head, not that he cared any. Aragorn quickly stepped between Legolas and the horsemaster, and pushed Legolas' bow aside so it was no longer pointing at the rider.

"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli, son of Glóin, and Legolas of the Woodland Realm.We are friends of Rohan, and of Théoden your king."

"Théoden no longer recognizes friend from foe, not even his own kin." The rider removed his helmet and his commrades pulled back their spears."Sarumon has poisoned the mind of the king and claimed lordship over these lands.My company are those loyal to Rohan, and for that we were banished. The White Wizard is cunning.He walks here and there they say as an old man, hooded and cloaked....and everywhere his spies slip past our nets." The leader of these horsed soldiers made it a point to look at Legolas as he said this. Legolas stared right back at him unflichingly.

"We are no spies."Aragorn said indomitably."We track a party of Uruk-hai westward across the plains. They have taken three of our friends captive." From the change of emotion on the riders face, the news they were about to get wasn't good.

"The Uruks are destroyed, we slaughtered them during the night."

"But there were two hobbits with them! Did you see two hobbits with them?" Gimli asked, with little hope still in his voice.

"They would be small, only children to your eyes."Aragorn said.

"We left none alive." Those words sent a knife through Legolas' heart. Surely Aurora could not be dead.....

"Dead?" Gimli asked, he sounded totally defeated.

"Another of our friends was with them, a woman. You could not have mistaken her for an orc." Legolas dreaded the answer he was going to get. The rider studied him for a moment before answering.

"Yes we did find the woman. She was fairly unharmed. One of my riders is accompanying her back to Edoras where her minor injuries can be healed."

"Oh thank the Valar." Legolas said with the breath he had been holding."Did she tell you anything?"

"She spoke of going to Lothlórien. I was rather suprised seeing as how she was human and wanted to go to Elvish land." Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn fought laughter as this rider called Aurora 'human', she was far from it. " She said that she was with two other companions when she was caught, she insisted upon looking for them, but we did not find them."

"How was is Merry and Pippin escaped but Aurora could not?" Aragorn asked Legolas.Legolas shook his head in reply.

"We all know how reckless she can be, probably _wanted_ to go to Isengard." Gimli said with a roll of his eyes. The rider studied them all for a moment before he whistled and motioned for two horses.

"This is Hasufel, and this is Arod. May they bear you to better fortune than their former masters." The rider put his helmet back on and got back on his horse before addressing them again." Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope, it is forsaken in these lands."

Aurora shifted in the bed again, to restless to sleep. She shouldn't be here. She should be heading back to Lothlórien with news of what had happened. Her head still hurt immensely, though the rest of her felt much better.With a sigh she threw the bed sheets aside and got out of bed. She started to pace around the room consumed in her thoughts. She wished she new what had happened to the others. What would happen now if any harm were to befall Frodo? Aurora had known all along that the reason Elrond had volunteered her for this was because if anything should hapen to Frodo, she would have been able to take the Ring. Now what though?And on top of that, where were Merry and Pippin?She had been stupid to tell them to run.

"Feeling better I see." Aurora jumped at the voice. She hadn't heard the woman enter the room.She was carrying a tray with a bowl of soup and a loaf of bread. " I thought you might be hungry."

"Thank you very much.Er...my name is Aurora, and you are...?"

"My name is Éowyn.It is very nice to meet you Aurora."

"It is nice to meet you too. This may seem like an odd question, but where am I ?" Éowyn laughed quietly

"This is Edoras, you are in the Golden Hall of Meduseld."

"Wow thats quite the name.What day is it?"

"The sixth of November. Is that bump on your head feeling any better?"

"A little better, but with how it still feels it will be a couple of days before I'm outta here."

"My brother's guard says they found you with orcs, I can't even imagine what it was like to be with those monsters."

"I was actually unconsious through most of it." Aurora stopped to think for a minute." Your brother?"

"Yes, Éomers my brother.His rider told me all about it." Aurora thought that Éomer and Éowyn did look a lot alike.

"Where is Éomer?" Éowyn sighed at Aurora's question.

"He has been banished from Rohan.Grima, Sarumon's pet, has poisoned my uncle's mind.Sarumon has control of Rohan, Éomer was our last chance of defending ourselves." Éowyn sighed again and turned to leave." Eat and then rest. I will speak with you later Aurora."


	3. Meeting Grima

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use a lot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema.

Chapter 3: Meeting Grima

Aurora waited till she was sure the coast was clear before she stepped out of her room. She wanted to meet this Grima. Aurora couldn't search for his specific aura because she had no magic, but she could recognize Sarumon's aura easily. If what Éowyn said was true, Grima would share Sarumon's aura. Aurora closed her eyes and spread out her own aura searching for even the tiniest feeling of a dark aura.

"There you are." Aurora whispered when she felt a dark aura. It was close, very close.

"Your words are poison" Aurora heard Éowyn's shout come from a room down the hall, then she watched as Éowyn stormed out of the room and flew down the hallway and then down the stairs. Aurora started toward the room Éowyn had come out of, and Grima met her halfway. He was an appalling looking thing. With jet black hair, unnaturally pale skin, and eyes that reminded Aurora of a rodent.

"Grima, I presume" Aurora asked though she knew it was him. He looked at her with those beady black eyes and sneered at her.

"Why are you here? Do you think you can help the people of Rohan? Sarumon is in control here, you are nothing compared to him." Aurora laughed when Grima said this.

"Do you even know who I am?"

"I know well who you are. Troy's daughter, of the Borealis bloodline, heir to the throne of Witches. You come from an impressive heritage, but _you _are nothing." The cold harsh way Grima said this showed he had been practicing this speech. Aurora fell into a reserve she used often when dealing with new people, she had used it at Elrond's Council.

"I will take that as a challenge Grima. Can you back up your words? Is Sarumon going to back you up? You talk a big fight, but when it comes down to the wire both you and Sarumon know I am stronger." Grima looked uncomfortable for only a second, but then regained control of himself and erased the uncomfortable look from his face.

"Sir" A young guard stood at the far end of the hall with a look of anxiety on his face.

"What is it" Grima asked harshly.

"Three riders approach the Hall, the king calls you to his side." Grima did not even bother looking back at Aurora as he walked away from Aurora, she started to follow him though, until Grima spoke to the guard.

"Take her" Grima pointed at Aurora" back to her room and make sure she does not leave it." With that Grima disappeared down the stairs.

"I don't much like him." Aurora said out loud.

"Nobody does really, but he is the Kings right-hand-man and has much control over the kingdom." Aurora glanced at the guard and wondered for a minute if the skinny twit was really going to make her do anything.

"Aurora? What on earth are you doing out of your room" Éowyn was very suddenly standing at the end of the hallway.

"I was just wondering what was going on." Éowyn motioned for the guard to leave and then dragged Aurora back into her room and shut the door.

"I saw three riders approach the city, they did not look like peoples of Rohan so I alerted guard. They were not even of the same race from what I saw." Aurora's heart skipped a beat when Éowyn said that. Could it be her friends?

"Éowyn what did they look like? Tell me exactly what you saw."

"Well I saw a human, he was dressed in dark clothes. He had short very dark hair. There was also an elf with long blonde hair..." Éowyn got no further before Aurora shrieked happily.

"That's them! Those are my friends."She was about to make a break for the door to go see them when Éowyn grabbed her arm.

"Are you sure"

"Yes! The man you described was Aragorn, and the elf is Legolas."

"But what about the other rider"

"Who cares? I don't know him so he doesn't concern me."Aurora again tried to get to the door but Éowyn was stronger than she looked.

"Well even so you can't go down there like this, you look like you just lived through some kind of war."Éowyn was right, Aurora didn't want them to see her like this, but all her stuff was in the bag she had left behind on the beach at Parth Galen. Éowyn seemed to read her mind because she ran over to a small trunk and pulled out a deep green dress.

"Here put this on. There's a comb on the dresser over there. Do you know how to get to the throne room downstairs" Aurora nodded. "Good, come down there when you are ready." With that Éowyn turned and ran out the door. Aurora dressed as quickly as possible, then ran the comb through her knotted hair. She then ran out the door and down the stairs into the throne room. The sight before her caught Aurora off guard. About twenty guards lay around with black eyes and bloody noses. Gimli was holding the despicable Grima by his cape, Aragorn and Legolas stood with another man that was clothed all in white. Éowyn was kneeling next to a man that Aurora assumed was her uncle. Aurora's heart warmed when she saw her friends before her, thank the Beings they looked alright.

"God could you guys make a more dramatic entrance?"Aurora said, which quickly caught their attention, and they spun around to face her.

"Aurora" Legolas asked. Aurora smiled at him before she walked over and gave him a hug which he returned.

"You had us rather worried about you." Aragorn said when Aurora pulled away from Legolas. Aurora shrugged at him and continued to smile.

"Well hello Aurora, it's nice to see you again." Aurora turned at the familiar voice. She knew it all too well, but it could be...

"Gandalf"


	4. An altered future

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema.

Author's Note: Thank you everyone that submitted a review. Sorry it took so long for me to get chapter 3 and 4up.

**TriGemini:** When I started writing Lady of the Book, I didn't intend for Aurora to be half as confrontational as she became.But while writing the story I actually discovered some stuff about the character such as that she was confrontational. So I played on that and turned Aurora from the original meek and submissive witch to the confrontational and outgoing witch that she now is.

Chapter 4: An Altered future

"Gandalf?You're...you're alive?" Aurora couldn't believe her eyes. She had watched Gandalf fall, she had been right there."You fell, I _watched _you fall. How did you...?" Gandalf smiled at her and patted her shoulder.

"I shall explain it later. What happened to you?" Aurora rolled her eyes dramatically.

"I had a confrontation with some Orcs that didn't seem happy to have me around. I still have a bump on my head from when I got thrown into that tree." Aurora touched the tender spot on the back of her head.

"They threw you into a tree?" Aragorn asked.

"Twice. I suppose that's what happens when you go into a fight without magic or a weapon you're familiar with. I got what was coming. Although I think they were looking for me along with Frodo and the Ring."

"What makes you say that?" Gandalf questioned.

"Well when they got hold of me they said ' is this the witch we were told to get'. Though you'd be the person to answer why." Aurora said looking at Grima, who was still under Gimli's watchful eye.

"I will say nothing to betray Sarumon."Grima hissed.

"Why? You already betrayed the King and all of Rohan, why not add Sarumon to the list of betrayees?"

"You stupid wretch, you speak of things you do not know of." He spat at her.

"You think I don't know of betrayel?You're dumber than you look, and you look really dumb.Let's just pray the King puts you out of your dumb misery when he finds out what you did." As Aurora said this, the king started to come around after Gandalf had given him a near concussion from using his magic.

"Gandalf?"

"Breathe the free air again my friend."

"Dark have been my dreams of late." Aurora though that Éowyn's uncle looked younger, about twenty years younger in fact. He was rubbing his hands as if they were alien parts to him.

"Your hands would remeber their old strength better if they grasped your sword." A guard came over then holding Théoden's sword.He grasped it and slowly pulled it out of the scabbard.He studied the blade for a moment then turned to look at Grima with hatred in his eyes.

"Take him outside." He ordered his guard, who gladly complied with his command. The king followed after the guards, sword in hand.

"This ought to be entertaining." Aurora said and started to follow Théoden. Éowyn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf,and Aragorn were right behind her.Aurora made it out the front door just to see Grima crawling away from Théoden, begging for mercy. Aurora got a feeling then alomst as if her foresight were trying to tell her something, but it was restricted by the power of the New Year. She watched Théoden raise his sword above his head to strike Grima. Aragorn shot out of nowhere and grabbed Théoden's arm to stop him. Aurora's stregth left her then as the feeling became too strong for her. Her legs gave way from under her and she toppled to the ground as if in a faint. Legolas grabbed her before she hit the ground though. Aurora watched in horror as Grima rode away on a black horse.

"Aragorn what have you done?"She whipsered to herself.

"What do you mean?" Aurora had forgotten that Legolas had been holding her and had overheard what she said.

"Where is my son?" Those were the last words Aurora heard Théoden say before she slipped back into the darkness of unconsiousness.

Aurora's eyes shot open and she sat up quickly making her feel light headed. She understood then what that feeling had been. She rolled off the bed, ran out of the bedroom, and down the stairs to the throne room where preparations were being made for Théoden's sons burial.

"Gandalf!" Aurora quickly spotted the white clad figure who was standing with Aragorn.

"Aurora, are you alright? You fainted outside."Gandalf asked with concern in his voice.

"Yeah I'm fine. We have problems, serious problems."She said and put a hand to her head, she was still feeling light headed.

"What problems are you speaking of?"Aragorn asked.

"Grima."Gandalf shook his head at the name.

"Grima is far from here, he can do no more damage to Rohan."

"No, no, no, LISTEN TO ME!" Aurora said, not even trying to veil the urgency in her voice." When Aragorn stopped the king from killing Grima, he..."

"I what?" Aragorn asked now concerned as well.

"You altered the future."


	5. Risking Magic

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema.

Author's Note: Since I left the last chapter off as a cliffie, i figured i wouldn't have you wait too long for this chapter.

Chapter 5: Risking magic

Aragorn looked absolutely shocked at what Aurora had just said, so did Gandalf.

"How did I alter the future?" Aurora opened her mouth to answer him, but then closed it.

"I can't tell you. It's an oath foreseers take when they get their license to practice magic.I'm not allowed to discuss the future with humans, discussing it even with Gandalf could wind up in my powers being permanently bound." Aurora thought back to the oath, never once in the years since her graduation had she ever considered breaking that oath. But losing her powers permanently was enough incentive to keep her from breaking that oath, it was one thing to be without magic for one week, to be without magic for the rest of your life it totally different. Aurora had her powers bound once before when she was younger, and she never wanted to relive that experience. Gandalf motioned for Aragorn to leave them with the promise of explaining as much as he could later, then he led her out the front doors and onto the front balcony where they could speak with a little privacy.

"Now what is this about an altered future?" He said gently trying to calm Aurora down from her hysterical state.

"Grima was supposed to die! Then Sarumon would have been totally in the dark about our attack..."

"Attack?" Gandalf cut in.

"Yes. Sarumon has been planning a war against Rohan for months, he just needed the opportunity, and with the Riders of Rohan out of the picture, and Théoden grieving over the loss of his son, now is the perfect time for him to attack . We would have been able to bring the fight to Sarumon and catch him off guard, but that only would have happened if Grima had died and Aragorn allowed Grima to live, and now he turned the tables against us. For weeks I had been having foreseeing visions of a terrible fight, I didn't understand until now, I was suppose to prevent that from happening by allowing Grima to die. Now we are at a serious default. Sarumon, like myself, has allies outside this dimensions, such as Yaderins. Do you know what a Yaderin can do in war? Yaderins transfer their soul to your body, totally destroying any control you had over yourself. They can do this as many times as they want, because when they kill they get stronger and thats what they do, they kill. Add in orcs and we are gonna have one hell of a fight in front of us. You have to go in there and talk to Théoden, tell him as much as you can without revealing much about the future ."

"Aurora we don't know for a fact that Sarumon..."Gandalf started but Aurora cut him off.

"Yes we do know! I am a goddammed foreseer I know what will happen." At that moment Legolas came out of the front doors looking for Aurora, whose back was turned to him. Gandalf tried to motion to Aurora that Legolas was behind her, but she paid no attention to him and continued to talk."I have had dealings with Sarumon in the past. He was behind the Yaderin killing of my parents, and then years later he hired another Yaderin to kill Travis. He is ruthless and smart, he will use any advantage he can. I suggest we do the same, now go in there and tell Théoden what I told you.I am risking all my magic by telling you this and then letting you tell Théoden could get me in real trouble."

"And letting certain elves overhear you could mean trouble too right?"Gandalf asked and again pointed in Legolas' direction. Aurora spun around to see Legolas standing there.

"Legolas?What are you doing standing there?"Legolas held out his hand to show that he had her phone.

"It was ringing so I answered it. They wanted to talk to you and said it was urgent."He answered meekly and handed her the phone.

"Who is it?" She asked as she took the phone from him.

"I am not sure." He turned and started to walk away.

"Thanks." Aurora called after motioned Gandalf away and put the phone to her ear."Hello?"

"We know you know what the rules why do you insist on breaking them?"Aurora's blood ran cold as she recognized the voices of the Council.

"Rules are made to be broken."Aurora said as confidently as was facing having her powers bound again, and the Council wouldn't hesitate to bind her magic.

"These rules are made to protect humans as well as our kind, and your blatant disregard for them is a bad example to your students, how can we expect your students to obey the laws if you will not?"

"This is far more important than rules, or even my students. This world's future was _altered_, do you know how often an entire worlds future is altered by one event taking place? It's a rare event. The existence of this world is now depending on the people of Rohan. If Sarumon wins this war against Rohan, this world is done for. We had a chance, but it was thrown away. I can't stand by and..."

"Do you know what the punishment for revealing the future to a non-forseer is? Having your powers bound eternally."

"I will always be willing to risk my powers being bound to see that a world may survive, it is a witches job to protect human kind no matter the cost. Isn't that the example I should be setting? Risking everything for these people is what the students need to learn, not to follow some stupid rules! You are contradictions to yourselves. You teach that human life is precious and we should help preserve it, but when a witch makes a sacrifice to help them you spit on her!"There was silence on the other end of the phone."I don't care if you bind my powers or not, I will use all my strength to help Middle-Earth survive." With that Aurora hung up the turned around and once again came face to face with Legolas."I thought you went inside." She said flatly.

"What does it mean to have your powers bound?" He asked ignoring her statement.

"They bind you powers in you, meaning that you can't use them. They can keep a Binding Spell on you for as long as they like, they have that authority, even over me. I know they wouldn't hesitate to take my magic from me."Aurora knew that the chances of her still having her magic when she woke up tomorrow were slim to none.

"You would give up your magic to save Middle-Earth?"He seemed surprised.

"I would give my life to save world has been like a second home to me, for the people here mean almost as much to me as the people in my own world do."

"That is a very noble thing to do." He said gently and smiled at her. She smiled back and blushed a bit."I came to say that Aragorn wants to speak with you."

"Hmmm...yeah...okay...Aragorn...right." She slowly walked away from Legolas and back into the main building. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't make herself forget the look on his face when he said she did a noble she would never tell anyone was that from the moment she had been in Edoras she couldn't stop thinking about Legolas, especially the kiss they had shared in Lothlórien. She shook her head, what was wrong with her?


	6. Just Talking

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry it took me so long to update! I promise I will never do that again.

Chapter 6: Just Talking

Aurora was still a bit shakey after her fight with the Council. It almost seemed to be in her nature to fight with people, which was odd because she couldn't remember her parents being this argumentative.

"Aragorn did you want to talk to me?" She said as she came up behind him.

"What did you say to Gandalf, he seems to be shaken up by it." Aurora glanced at Gandalf who looked to be in deep thought, so in deep thought he nearly walked into a wall.

"I see what you mean. I can't really tell you too much Aragorn, I'm in enough trouble as it is. The Council doesn't realize it is so narrow sighted they can't see I did the right thing. Was I wrong to want to help Middle-Earth?" Aurora sighed and ran her fingers through her long hair."All through my childhood my parents taught me to think of others before myself and do things for other people, it's a moral I've lived by. Now the Council wants to tell me I'm wrong."

"Well in all honesty does it matter what they say? You would continue to do as you felt right whether or not you had their blessing. You don't seem like the type of woman to care about others opinions of what you do."

"There are a few people whose opinions I care about, yours, Legolas', Gimli's, and Gandalf's are just a few. You know Aragorn I have to apologize to you."

"What on earth for?" Aragorn asked and he turned to face her, Aurora in turn faced him.

"For misjudging you, and for not trusting you. When I first met you I thought you were a stupid self-doubting clueless human prince that only hated witches because of bedtime stories he had heard when he was a boy. I see now that I was very wrong about you, and I'm sorry for judging you before I really knew you."

"Then I too must apologize," Aragorn said," because I misjudged you too. The way I acted towards you was based on the hatred I had for another witch. I judged you based on someone you weren't, on someone you're not. And for that I am truly sorry."

"Guess we did a pretty good job of misjudging one another huh?" Aurora asked with a smile.

"Yes indeed we did. Now with that behind us, I wanted to tell you that you do not have tell me about your forseeing visions if it will get you in more trouble."

"Aragorn I already am in trouble! Nothing can change that. There are reasons why foreseers don't tell non-foreseers their visions, mostly because if they knew they might change it, and that's rarely for the best. It's for protection. But in this case I thought it would be for the best to tell Gandalf." Gandalf came up to Aragorn and Aurora , intending to speak to Aurora.

" I have decided to wait until after his son's funeral to discuss your visions with Théoden."

Aurora nodded in agreement."Thats fine by me. When is his son's funeral?"

"Later today, he has asked that we all attend."Gandalf glanced at Aragorn, and then at Aurora who shrugged.

"No thanks. Much as I enjoy funerals I've attended my fair share. I've got to call Hazal to assure her I'm alive and to see if she found anything on our mysterious Yaderin-killer."

"Yes Aragorn mentioned to me the strange sighting of the dead creature. It seems that there are other worlds besides just yours Aurora that are involved."

"All the more reason for me to try to figure out what's going on. Sarumon's calling in his allies we are gonna need help, and with the council against me..." Aurora didn't bother to finish her sentence; she just let the ending hang without having to say it.

"Middle-Earth can't need that much help. With Aurora Borealis fighting for us our world is sure to endure this war."Aragorn said with amusement in his voice.

"Hey laugh all you like buddy, but I'm a very experienced world-saver!"She smiled at him, happy to not be arguing with him again. Aurora glanced around the throne room and saw Legolas on the other side staring at her. Something had been plaguing her mind recently about him, more specifically the kiss they had shared in Lothlorien. If she knew he had just acted on impulse and the kiss had meant nothing, Aurora would actually feel better. But if the kiss really had meant something, Aurora wasn't sure how she would feel."I'll catch up with you guys later okay?" And with that she walked away from Aragorn and Gandalf and over to Legolas, having absolutely no idea what to say.


	7. What did it mean?

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Author's Note:Hey ya'll! Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up, school has kept me busy, hope you like this chapter, please review!

Chapter 7: What did it mean?

"Hi." That was the only thing that Aurora could think to say.

"Hello."He said back, and a long silence followed. Aurora kicked herself in the head for not thinking about what to say to him _before _coming over to talk to him.

"Um...there's something I wanted to ask you about."

"Alright." He stood there with a look on his face as if waiting for her to blurt it out right there. Aurora glanced around at all the people milling about and shook her head.

"Here isn't the place. Come on." She led him from the throne room up to the room they had given her to use. She closed the door behind them and her heart started to beat in double time. How on earth was she going to ask him this? She knew he could see her struggling with this, she wasn't even going to try to hide the fact she was struggling.

"Aurora is everything alright?" He came over and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and Aurora slowly nodded." Whatever it is you need to ask me, you can go ahead and ask, I won't mind."

Aurora turned her head slightly to look into his blue eyes. She knew she had to ask, but how would he react? With a deep sigh and a racing heart she started to speak." It's just that something has been...bothering...me for a while and I figured you would be able to ease my mind about it." She paused for a moment and looked at him for a reaction to what she had said so far.

"Go on."Legolas said reassuringly. Aurora moved away from him and started to pace within the small area of the room before continuing.

"Back in Lothlórien, the day we left, you and I went to practice archery." Aurora glanced at him and she saw a look of realization on his face when he knew where the conversation was headed." And at one point during our practice you...well you...um..."

"I kissed you." Legolas said bluntly finishing off her sentence.

"Yes you did. And since then I have been racking my brain trying for the life of me to figure it out, but I just can't seem to…So…what did it mean?" There. She had finally asked. Now all she had to do is wait for an answer. Aurora wasn't sure which answer would be worse, the one said ' my kissing you was a mistake and I didn't mean to', or the one that said ' yesI meant to kiss you because...' Because what? Aurora was suddenly more nervous about the answer than the question. Legolas looked entirely different, he seemed surprised and even a little hurt by the question. He just stared at her for a while, letting the question hang in the air.

"You don't know?"He asked quietly, the hurt plain in his voice. Aurora then felt ashamed for being too stupid to figure it out on her own. But how could she? She had only had romantic dealings with one man, and that had been a mystery to her too. She sat down on the edge of the bed and shook her head slowly.

"I'm so confused about everything."

"I know it seems confusing, and I know its strange..."

"Strange!"Aurora's head snapped around so she could look at him." Strange is an understatement. You barely know me!"

"I don't have to know every detail of your life to know what I feel for you."

"And what do you feel for me?"The question had come out harsher than Aurora would have liked, but at least she had said it. Legolas didn't say a word, he strode over to the bed grabbed Aurora arms and pulled her to her feet. Then he wrapped one arm around her lower back and placed a hand on the back of her head and drew her into a deep kiss. Aurora was in shock, but only for a second, then she did what she had seen women do in chick flicks. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body more fully up against his.

The kiss was abruptly ended when someone started knocking on the door. Aurora and Legolas pulled apart just as Gimli opened the door and popped his head in. The dwarf seemed surprised to see both Aurora and Legolas in the room together, and gave them a skeptical look.

"We were just talking." Aurora said innocently, as if that statement wasn't a dead giveaway of what they were doing.

Gimli grunted and mumble "Just talking indeed. The funeral is about to start and Gandalf thought you _both _should come, but maybe we should leave you here and let you have some alone time."

"Oh shut up Gimli we're coming." Aurora exited the room with Legolas close behind.

Again Aurora heard Gimli mumbled to himself,"Just talking indeed."


	8. Matters of the Heart

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 8:Matters of the Heart

The funeral was a somber event, with quite a large turn out. Everyone in Edoras had turned out to bury the king's son. Attending the funeral brought back many memories for Aurora from her parents funeral and the memorial service for Travis, and the funerals of all the people she had known and fought with. In her 21 short year she had been to too many of these, but she never let anyone know it bothered her. She was always the tough person at funerals, the one who never shed a tear, that is not until she was alone and in the comfortable confines of her own room. To her right, Aurora could see that Éowyn seemed the same way, she didn't cry though her grief was apparent on her face. Aurora turned her gaze from Éowyn and instead looked at the ground, and allowed her mind to drift from the funeral and to another recent event.

' "I don't have to know every detail of your life to know what I feel for you." ' Those had been Legolas' exact words before they shared another kiss. So he did feel something more than friendship for her, maybe even love.

'_Not that it matters, he's an elf and I'm a witch so nothing can come of it.' _She thought. Of course Aurora had thought that nothing would come of her and Travis when he had expressed an interest in her all those years ago , then again when her and Travis _had_ become something, he had paid for loving her with his life. An almost unbearable sickness hit Aurora when she thought of Legolas dying because of what he felt for her. '_NO, there's no way he's paying that kind of price because of me, Travis made that mistake I won't let Legolas make the same one. Too many have suffered because of me, if I can save Legolas from that, then I will-- no matter how much it hurts me..." _Aurora had never let herself realize it, until Legolas had kissed her, just what he meant to her. Being without him would be like..._"Like dying all over again." _After killing Travis, the grief had been too much for Aurora to handle and her body had just quit on her. And she had been dead for over a day before, reasons unbeknownst to her, the Beings saw it fitting to bring her back to life. The gods thought to prolong her torture and she had survived and almost healed over a space of eight years…and then the Beings had brought someone new into her life, someone who she felt even more strongly for than she had Travis.

Before Aurora's thoughts could continue any further, she felt the magic around her shift and change, someone had come through to this world, she reached out to see who had come through. She had to fight to hide her smile as she recognized the aura of the visitor. '_Hazel'. _She thought. Curiosity rose in Aurora as she wondered what could have brought her long time friend and mentor to Middle-Earth. Aurora glanced up from the ground and was surprised to see that they had finished burying the kings son and people were dispersing. Aragorn walked by and as he did, he touched her arm signaling her to follow and to leave the king be by himself.

"I hate funerals." Aurora mumbled to no one in particular as they started to walk away.

"Everyone does lass."Gimli said flatly.

"Well I know attending funerals usually brings back bad memories to people of others that have been lost. And that only makes it worse."

"Speaking from experience?" Aragorn asked. Aurora shrugged, not bothering to give him a straight answer. " Is that why you didn't want to attend the funeral in the first place?"

" Are you implying that you really wanted to attend?" Aurora asked, again avoiding giving an answer.

"Why are you avoiding answering my questions?"

Aurora shot him a mock glare and thought for a moment before replying." Yes the reason I did not wish to attend the funeral is because it does bring back a lot of my own personal bad memories. There, are you satisfied?"

"Very." Aragorn said with triumph in his voice. Aurora reached up and gave his shoulder a gentle shove.

"You're such a goof." Aurora mumbled and started to climb up the stairs and saw Aragorn raise an eyebrow at her, she just rolled her eyes, not wanting to explain what a 'goof ' was. She opened the door to the palace and was greeted by Hazel's stern glare.

"Young lady where have been?!"Hazel had always been like a 2nd mother to Aurora, and had never held back when it came to treating Aurora like a troublesome worry-causing daughter.

"I was at a funeral."

"I'm not talking about _now, _I'm talking the past four days when you disappeared."Hazel said in an exasperated voice." I couldn't get in touch with you, and then when you do contact someone it's to get in a fight with the Council? Girl have you lost your mind?"

Aurora laughed." Hazel you know as well as myself that I haven't had my sanity since the day I was born."

"Well you might want to get some because you'll need it to deal with what I've got to tell you."

"Let me guess," Aurora said in an indifferent tone," The Council is so mad about my defiance that they have decided to bind my powers until I learn my lesson?"

"Oh no this is worse than what you did to the Council. I found some information on your mysterious Yaderin-killer."

"Well... good news or bad news?" Apprehension was straining Aurora voice.

Hazel stared at Aurora levelly before answering." It depends on how you would perceive receiving help from a traitor."


	9. Killer Revealed

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 9:Killer revealed

" Traitor!" Aurora gasped, to which Hazel nodded.

"It was by complete accident that we can by it, the real surprise is that it's a registered and licensed Witch." A million horrible possibilities as to who it could be flashed through Aurora's mind.

"Come, we should talk about this away from prying ears." Aurora mumbled and motioned with her head to a group of humans that had stopped working to listen to their conversation. Hazel nodded again and followed as Aurora led her up to her room. Shutting the door behind her Aurora took a deep breath to calm her nerves.

"Before you name names, are you _sure _you have the right person?"The last thing they needed was to go accusing innocent witches of improper use of magic.

" It was rather surprising to see who it was, but at the same time knowing our luck, it was almost expected. We came across him when a witch from the office brought a request from a witch felon to me. He wanted to renew his license, apparently we had had it in our possession for a couple of days before it was brought to my attention. It was dated the day before the killings started according to how long you said the Yaderin had been dead."

"How long had the person been out of..."Aurora let her sentence trail waiting for Hazel to tell what his punishment had been.

"House arrest and bound magic. He was like that for twelve years, he was let free about a week and a half ago, give or take a few way of course I looked this guy up using his registration number, and the profile that came up almost made me pass out. Then to make sure that I wasn't making assumptions, I sent a guard to check out his home, and a neighbor said he disappeared just over a week ago."

"Hazel _who is it?"_ Aurora's nerves felt ready to burst from how tense she felt.

"You may or may not recognize the name. Sanders Fereti, as in ex-General Sanders Fereti." Recognize the name! That name made Aurora's blood boil, and on instinct she clenched her fists. That name was all too familiar to her, so was reason he had even been placed on house arrest with his magic bound, had it been up to her he would have been executed. Sanders Fereti had been the General in charge of her parents army. He had betrayed them to Sarumon, resulting in their murder. He had walked away just before the fight and told Sarumon what was going on and struck a deal with him. Sarumon then hired an assassin and had her parents killed. The Council said there was no real proof to judge the man with making a deal with the enemy, so they charged him with walking away from his duties when called to fight, and stripped him of rank of general. Sanders got twelve years of house arrest; Aurora got to bury her parents at nine years old.

"That back stabbing bastard is behind this?" Aurora spat, her voice dripping with venom.

"Apparently. When I put the pieces together I tried to call you, but your phone wouldn't work."

"What the hell does he want? Does he think that helping me is going to make me renew his license? I wouldn't trust that man with a stapler, much more his magic." Aurora hissed.

"Indeed. Strange road to redemption though, you have to admit." Hazel said absently and sat down on the bed.

"What do you mean?" Aurora allowed her fist to unclench themselves.

"Well think about it. He betrays your parents, has them killed, and is punished. For 12 years he's had to think about all he's done wrong, and he realizes so have you. It's now just after your twenty second birthday and he knows you'll come to power in less than a year, and when you do come to power, you can order his execution. He's no longer under house arrest and has his magic back, though he legally can't use it in our world, he comes to a world he can use his power, and is carefully walking a step ahead of you killing off the things that would cause the most problems for the fellowship. It's almost like he's apologizing." Hazel's matter-of-fact tone made the information sink in to Aurora's head. And she realized how true it was. He was apologizing in a sense by repaying the debt he owed. He was supposed to protect her parents and after twelve years he comes back to protect the daughter of the people he betrayed. But Aurora was still wary, this guy had betrayed her family before, she would have to be extra careful.

"Do you think you could find him in this world?"

"What for? You have a good thing going for you."

" I don't trust him Hazel, I never will. But I still want to speak with him, I want to know what hes up to."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do." Hazel said. A moment of silence hung between two, each of them assessing the situation.

"Thanks Hazel." Aurora said breaking the silence. " After my parents death you practically adopted me, and you were there for me when Travis died, and even now less than a year before my own coronation you are still guiding and helping me through the hard stuff.I don't know where I'd be without you."

"Back in New York city." Hazel answered smiled and shook her head.

"Come on the guys are gonna wonder whats up." Aurora opened the door and started to leave.

"Speaking of 'the guys', How is your relationship with Legolas?"Aurora froze mid-step and blushed.

"How did you know?"

Hazel laughed." Hun, I've been around a long time, and at my age you learn to see things. I could see in your eyes that there was something more than friendship between you and a guy. I knew Aragorn was marrying Arwen so it wasn't him, and Gimli...well...let's just say that Legolas seemed the obvious choice."

"So it's obvious?" Aurora's blush hadn't yet faded from her face, in fact it seemed to get redder the more Hazel spoke.

"It's obvious to me and it would be obvious to someone who has felt the same thing."

"Would he be able to see it?" Aurora asked sheepishly.

"You haven't told him yet you mean?"Hazel acted surprised even though she knew it was in Aurora's nature not to be open about her feelings. In lieu of answering, Aurora simply walked out the door mumbling something about 'the guys'.

Hazel shook her head and she whispered so only herself could hear," Don't worry Aurora, you don't need to say it. He already knows."


	10. Of Orcs and Wildmen

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 10: Of Orcs and Wildmen

Legolas waited for Aurora to come back from her talk with Hazel. He felt so bad for Aurora, that now there was another piece to the puzzle. Hazel had looked so anxious as Aurora had led her away, as if the news wasn't bad it was just how a person, or Aurora, would take it that made the difference. This was the last thing she needed, Aurora was already stressed. Legolas couldn't help but feel guilty since he had added to that stress when he up and kissed her again. He knew he had to stop doing that without warning. He himself hadn't really known about his feelings for Aurora until just recently. Legolas should have seen it sooner...he loved her. When the burning rage had filled him after she had been taken by the Uruk hai, and then the feeling of his breaking heart when he had thought she was dead, those had just been signs to the stronger feelings that ran beneath them. When he had seen her alive and well, there were no words to describe the feeling of utter joy, but what did she feel for him? Legolas _knew _there was something there, some feeling stronger than friendship that she had for him. But he had to face facts, Aurora was a witch and he was an elf. Legolas sighed, why did love have to be so complicated?

"Hey guys." Legolas looked up as Aurora came down the stairs." Okay we got some good news and some bad news, which do you want first?"

"Doesn't matter either way." Aragorn said.

" Okay the good news is we know who the Yaderin killer is, bad news is it's the guys who betrayed my parents to Saruman and got them killed." Aurora said with a hint of agitation in her voice, which was understandable to Legolas, it seemed as if Aurora's past followed her no matter where she went."Hazel's gone back to New York to see if she can't track the guy down in this world, find out what he's really up to."

"Is there even the slightest chance this man is truly on our side?" Aragorn asked.

"Hazel seems to think he's apologizing to me for helping assassinate my parents, she seems to think he is really on our side. I personally don't trust the twit, but that's probably because I haven't had the most pleasant dealings with him in the past. In fact last time i saw the man I think i was swearing in seven different ways, we should just keep our eyes open." The guys nodded in agreement. As Aurora turned to go back upstairs he heard her sigh," god this couldn't get more complicated."

Before Aurora even got a full two steps away from them though Gandalf and Théoden came slamming through the front doors with two young children, one boy and one girl. Théoden turned to Aurora," Go find my niece." And Aurora quickly went to do so.

"What happened?" Legolas asked as he saw the rugged condition of the two children.

"Orcs...and wildmen...coming...raise alarm." The boy gasped out though he was barely conscious.

" You can tell us what you have to say after you've rested a bit."Gandalf shushed the boy. Aurora returned within seconds with Éowyn at her side, and anyone could see the automatic change in her demeanor when Éowyn saw the condition of the children. She quickly took them over to a table and sat them down.

"Aurora come with me." And the two disappeared again.

"_What happened?"_ Aragorn repeated Legolas' earlier question.

"We saw them coming over the hill," Gandalf explained, "They had been riding for days as you can tell by the state of them. The boy keeps mumbling something about orcs, but he can't say much else, and the girl is completely exhausted." Éowyn and Aurora returned carrying bowls of soup ,blankets, and water for the children. As Aurora wrapped them in the blankets Éowyn gave them the soup and water, which they both quickly gulped down.

"Now," Éowyn said soothingly and knelt down next to them," what did you need to tell us?" As the boy gave an uncut version of their journey Aurora came to stand next to boy as he spoke of orcs and wildmen racing through the Westfold destroying all in their way. Aurora gave a heavy sigh as she listened to the boy's story, and the more the boy talked, more withdrawn Aurora seemed. When he had finished Legolas knew what Aurora was thinking, so he leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"I think things have become more complicated.


	11. To run, or not to run

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Author's Note: Sorry It's been a while since I last updated, but I've been really busy because my sister just got married! So this chapter is dedicated to my sister and her new husband because they both have supported my writting since the beginning.

Chapter 11:To run, or not to run

Aurora sat at a table with Aragorn and Gimli, Legolas was standing nearby. Théoden and Gandalf sat at the front of the room, the two children sat at table close to them still eating. Théoden had been drilling them for the past half hour or so for every detail of their story, but they hadn't learned much of anything else than what they had learned the first time they heard the story.

Gandalf sighed heavily."This is but a taste of the terror Sarumon will unleash. All the more potent for now he is driven by fear of Sauron. Ride out and meet him head on. Draw him away from your women and children...you must fight." Aurora was about to voice an objection to what Gandalf said, but instead decided to keep her mouth shut. Many were the times that she hadn't had such good judgment and landed herself in trouble, the Council of Elrond had been only one such instance.

"You have 2000 good men riding North as we speak." Aragorn voiced his opinion in the matter also."Éomer is loyal to you, his men will return and fight for their king."

"They will be 300 leagues from here by now."Théoden got out of his chair and started to pace around the room." Éomer cannot help us. I know what it is you want of me, but I will not bring further death to my people.I will not risk open war."

"Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not."Aragorn said, his voice strained a bit from lack of emotion. Aurora could see that this statement pissed off the king because of the look on his face when he spun around to face Aragorn.

"When last I looked, Théoden not Aragorn was king of Rohan." Before things got any uglier Aurora decided to add her voice to the argument.

"Much as you may not want me to say it Aragorn, I have to agree with Théoden on this." Aragorn's head slowly turned to face her.

"Running will solve nothing." He said trying to keep a hold on his temper.

"Neither will getting massacred."Aurora said equally as calm."They don't have the man power to fight an offensive war."

"Against Sarumon's army, I think they do. How many men could Sarumon have rallied to him?"

"Sarumon isn't stupid! As much as we want him to be, he's not. It's just that simple. He won't send a handful of orcs to get the job done. Sarumon has resources and he will use them, an offensive war will get all these people killed, they need to work on a defensive strategy."

"I think I know what I'm talking about Aurora, I've seen my fair share of battles."

"As have I!"Aurora stood up quickly nearly upsetting the table." I've seen things that can mess people up for the rest of their lives. And I've had more dealings with Sarumon as far as wars go than anyone else in this room. If we run, he'll follow. And if we stay and fight he'll slaughter us. Right now we have to choose the lesser of two evils. We have far better chances at survival if we run and try to fight a defensive battle on our turf than if we go out there and meet him head on completely unprepared!"

"I'm not questioning you experience in war, but this isn't even your world, what do you have to lose out of all this?"Aragorn said, and he immediately regretted it. The look of hurt that passed over Aurora's face sent a knife right through his heart.

"Aragorn," She said quietly gripping the table tightly through her anger,"Just because I'm not from this world doesn't mean that I don't care about its future. If i honestly didn't care, I wouldn't be standing here right now. How many chances have I had , have we all had, to turn around and walk away from this? I'm too involved now to let this world fend for itself, and I don't have any intention of leaving until Sauron is defeated and Sarumon is dead." Aurora released the table from her death grip and walked away from the men, and heard the conversation come to an end as she left.

"What is the kings decision?" Gandalf asked, and after a long pause Théoden answered.

"I shall think about it through the night and inform you of my decision in the morning." Their voices faded behind her as Aurora continued to her room. She shut the door behind her and went to sit on the bed. As she sat down she put her head in her hands and sighed slowly. War was coming to these people, they couldn't avoid it now. Aurora knew from her visions, this was the war from her visions these people were headed to. She had been sent here to help them avoid that war, so many weeks of horrible visions and she had blown her chance of changing it. All because of Grima, or rather all because of Sarumon. That wizard's life wasn't worth the trouble he was causing. He had destroyed her life, and was now trying to destroy the lives of everyone in Middle Earth. And she had had the chance to prevent that...

" And I failed." She whispered.

"You didn't fail." Aurora jumped at the other voice in the room. She was surprised to see Gandalf standing at the opposite side of the room.

"Gandalf...you scared me, what are you doing here?"

"I came to speak with you about what you said downstairs. What you said did make sense, you do know the evil side of Sarumon better than anyone else, you've been dealing with him since your childhood."

"On the most unpleasant terms possible." Aurora said flatly.

"Your knowledge of his evil ways will be just as much help to us as your magic and foresight will be. And regardless of the King's choice to stay or run, I will have to leave to go and find Éomer and his men tomorrow. So I will be counting on you and Aragorn to be the most help to the king in my absence. Please put your little differences aside."

"It's not our differences that cause the tension between is, it's how much alike we are." Aurora said ruefully. " We're both fighting for so much, and we're too worried about making mistakes that our patience wears thin. Aragorn's a good man, he's just dealing with a lot."

"Well you seem to have much on your mind too."Gandalf said sympathetically. Aurora nodded without looking at him. Gandalf didn't have a clue as to how much was on Aurora's mind. " Aurora, were you aware of Boromir's death?"

Aurora nodded again." I'm not quite sure how, but I just kinda knew. I suppose its better though, that he is not among us to see what has and what will become of his world. He cared for this world and his people very much, to a fault in fact. They'll be time to mourn for him later though, we have worse things to worry about."

Gandalf nodded in agreement." Then I will leave you to get some rest. Your powers return tomorrow do they not?"

"Yeah, I get my magic back tomorrow." Gandalf didn't say anything more, he just turned to leave her room. "Wait." Gandalf stopped and turned to face her again."You never told me how you survived that fall with the Balrog."

Gandalf smiled at her then came over to rest an old and gnarled had on her shoulder."Much like how you were brought back from your first death. We simply have a higher purpose we have yet to fulfill." With that he turned and left her room in the same silence he had come in.

"Higher purpose huh?" Aurora said to herself, then shrugged it off and got ready for bed. She quickly changed from the dress Éowyn had given her to wear to a night dress she pulled from her pack that Legolas had put in her room...her mind shifted over to think of if there be a worse time to develop feelings for someone? Though Legolas was far more capable of defending himself than Travis was, war still took many lives and she couldn't bear if it Legolas happened to be among the lost. Aurora had brief feelings of guilt as she thought of Travis. She had promised to always love him...but would he really want her to live out the rest of her days grieving for him and forsaking love all together? Could Aurora hold her fading feelings for Travis in her heart while loving Legolas? Maybe it had been a foolish promise to make, to love someone that had been taken from you like that. Maybe she should let go...But how could she? To just like that break a promise and turn her back on someone, it made her feel kinda sick.

She stood up and took off her necklace with the rings on it that Legolas had returned to her earlier that day. The glint from her mother's ring caught her eyes and Aurora stared at it while thinking about how her parents had met in highschool and instantly had fallen in love, no complications there. Aurora didn't have that luxury of easy love. If she mother had been in her position, what would she have done? All of the thinking Aurora was doing was giving her a head ache. She set the necklace down and climbed into her bed, and sleep soon overtook her.


	12. The King's Decision

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 12:The King's decision

Aurora was jolted awake by the sound of a heavy object hitting the floor. As she sat up the bed she allowed her returned magic to stretch out and touch the other auras around Edoras, it was such a comforting feelings to sense so many people around her. But in their auras there was a strong sense of fear that Aurora could feel. She got out of bed and saw that her pants and shirt had been cleaned and returned to her, so she quickly dressed in them and stuffed her nightdress back in her pack and any other items of hers that she had around the room. As she hustled down to the throne room, she saw people running around like they had no heads to think with.

"Gandalf what's going on?" Aurora asked as she made her way into the throne room and spotted the guys standing around watching everyone run around.

"Haven't you heard?" Gandalf said gruffly, " Théoden has decided to move everyone from Edoras to Helm's Deep. Apparently he thought your idea of a defensive war was better."

"Helm's Deep? I've heard of that place I think. That's that big cave in the side of a mountain that these people constantly use during war isn't it?"Aurora said trying to remember everything she had heard of the mountain refuge known as Helm's Deep.

"That's exactly what it is, a cave. One way in, and one way out."

"From a strategic standpoint that doesn't sound very safe. But it's gotta be safer than here though right? I mean they'd get killed in no time if they stayed in Edoras." As Aurora was talking she remembered from her dreams that the battle had in fact taken place right next to a mountain...were they playing right into Sarumon's hands? But Aurora knew from previous experience that those visions could be changed even as they happened in real life.

"Aurora?AURORA?" Aurora snapped back to reality when she heard Gandalf continually say her name.

"Yeah, whats up?"

"You had a thousand yard stare in your eye.I asked if you had any foreseeing visions last night."

Aurora shook her head."Nothings been done to change them so I wouldn't have seen anything new. After the Grima thing the future has been changed so much that if something isn't changed back and soon, I'm gonna have to resort to drastic measures. That's not something I want to have to do."

"Drastic measures?"Gimli asked.

"Yeah, I would have to use all my magic to personally re-alter this worlds future."

"Can you do that lass?"

" It is physically _possible _but only one witch before me has successfully done that and lived to talk about it. It's the second hardest spell to cast next to raising people from the dead, because as far as I know when you bring someone back to life you don't live to talk about that. Only the witches from my family have a strong enough aura to pull off a spell that changes the future, any other witch that tried it would get killed before they even got close to finishing the spell. Then of course there's also the matter of legalism, the Council would have my head if I used my magic for that, seeing as how spells of that power were banned from use nearly two hundred years ago. Then again the Council's already ticked off at me, using that spell would only worsen the punishment that is for sure awaiting me when I get back to New York."

"Only one witch has ever successfully re-altered the future? No offense meant, but that doesn't give us much reason to be confident in that spell."Aragorn commented skeptically.

"No I said only one witch has successfully done the spell _and lived to talk about it_, that's different. And yeah with any other witch that would be a reason to doubt the spell, but I've been dead before and when you die and come back to life your magic is way stronger than it originally would have been. Gandalf here is living proof of that too."Aurora wasn't surprised to get strange looks from the guys, but she simply ignored them. The conversation came to an end anyway because Aurora saw Éowyn coming towards them, and perhaps it was just practiced habit to drop any talk of magic when an unaware human came around, either way Aurora didn't want Éowyn overhearing anything she wasn't ready to know.

"Aurora have you heard?"Éowyn seemed totally unaware that all talk among the group had stopped as soon as she was within hearing range.

"That we are all leaving for Helm's Deep, yes I've been informed of that."

" I cannot believe my uncle took your advice, it's not like him to listen to a woman."

Aurora shrugged." Your uncle had it in his mind to leave Edoras all along, he just wanted someone to support his decision, woman or not it didn't matter. But I am here to help in any way I can."

Éowyn raised an eyebrow." Really? Well then I suppose you can come and give me a hand with the swords." Aurora laughed and shook her head.

"I left myself open for that one. Whatever. Lead the way." And Aurora followed Éowyn over to a trunk on the opposite side of the room. It was filled to the top with swords.

"Okay look through the swords, the ones that have a good edge go in this other trunk and the bad swords go over here to go to the bad ones will have..."

"...A warped or dented edge, yeah I know." Aurora finished Éowyn's sentence." I'm very familiar with swords."

" I know you're not human." Éowyn said in a low tone after working a few moments in silence. Aurora didn't look up from the swords, she just kept working.

"What do you mean?" Aurora asked feigning innocence.

"I can put things together with my mind. There is no reason for a human woman from this world to be traveling with a wizard, and human woman would not have battle experience as you said you have last night, no human woman would have survived traveling with orcs for as long as you, it just isn't possible."

"You mean it's not probable that a human woman from your...this...world would do those doesn't mean anything that I have done those things."

"You said last night that you had fought with Sarumon before. Why would Sarumon take interest in a human woman? And why would you still be alive if you have fought him?" Aurora cursed in her mind, Éowyn was asking way too many questions that Aurora didn't want to answer. Because the only answer to the questions was simple: She was a Witch. Aurora wasn't sure if she wanted the people of Rohan to know she was a witch because they'd do one of two things a) They'd flip out and blame everything that went wrong on her and thus take their frustrations out on her, or b) They'd come to depend on her to win the war single-handedly with her magic which Aurora wasn't sure was even possible. She just continued to work in silence weighing the pros and cons of each choice in her head as Éowyn bore a hole in her with her questioning look. She glanced at Gandalf who was motioning for her to come over, thankful for a reason to leave Aurora stood up.

"Éowyn I promise I'll explain everything to you, but for now you must just trust me enough not to tell anyone about what you've discovered." She said and left Éowyn to ponder to herself.

"I overheard some of your conversation with Éowyn and thought it would be a good idea to give you a reason to leave." Gandalf said as she drew near. She sighed and gave him a grateful smile.

"I'm not sure I want people knowing I'm a witch. It's different with you because you're only a wizard and witches are far stronger than wizards,no offense or nothing." She said the last part hastily.

Gandalf shook his head indifferently," None taken, though you may not be able to hide that fact for much longer, it's a little hard to hide."

"You don't have to tell me."

"Indeed. But I must let you know that I am leaving to find Éomer, hopefully before Sarumon's army finds you." Gandalf turned to leave but was stopped by the king calling his name.

"Gandalf what is this I am hearing about you not accompanying us to Helm's Deep?" Aurora noticed that the king looked tired, very he hadn't slept the previous night, and Aurora couldn't help but feel bad for him. He was under a terrible amount of stress for a human to deal with.

"There is something I must attend to as soon as possible, something that may help you with your poor choice of battle strategy." Gandalf said in a huffy voice and continued out the doors with Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn in tow. Aurora turned to the king who looked quite shocked and shrugged at him before hurrying out the door after Gandalf.

"Gandalf what was _that _about?" She asked as she caught up to the wizard.

"Helm's Deep!" He spat without slowing.

"They flee to the mountains when they should stand and fight! Who will defend them if not their king?" Gimli grumbled from behind them.

"He is only doing what he thinks is best for his people Helm's deep has saved them in the past." Aragorn said calmly, his opinion seemingly changing from the one he voiced the night before.

"There is no way out of that ravine, he's walking into a trap. He thinks he's leading them to safety, what they will get is a massacre. Ask Aurora, she's seen what's to come."

Aurora's mouth dropped open in shock."Don't point the finger at me buddy, you know as well as I do nothing is set in stone, not even death."

"I'm not ' pointing the finger' at anybody, I'm saying that you've seen through your foresight what fighting at Helm's Deep will be like."

"No I haven't, I've seen what Helm's Deep will be like if the current course of events continues in that direction. In which case I will use my magic to re-alter the future even at the cost of my own life." Aurora's voice held a note of indomitability that couldn't be broken. Gandalf's face hardened into a scowl when she said this and he scoffed at her.

"That may be the point of Sarumon's unexpected attack on Rohan. He wants you dead Aurora, he's too afraid of you to let you live any longer."

"So you're saying that the whole reason he's attacking Rohan now is because of my presence here? I don't think so, Sarumon has wanted Rohan destroyed for some time now."

"Indeed he has, but your presence here makes it more urgent for him to see it done, he knows you well after all the years of your personal wars, and he knows that you'd sooner allow yourself to die than allow all of Rohan to, and he can't let this opportunity pass him by. Next to Frodo, you are the only real threat to him and Sauron, maybe more so than Frodo."

"He knows what I used to be, but I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve that he won't be ready for. Like I said earlier, re-altering the future is my last resort."

"Last resort, let's keep it that way." Gandalf turned and quietly spoke to Aragorn for a moment before getting on top of Shadowfax and readying to leave," I will return, look for my coming on the first light on the fifth day, at dawn look to the east. Until then young lady," He said directing his comment to Aurora," You stay alive. In the event of Frodo's failure, Valar willing it won't come to it, you may be the only thing standing between this world and total destruction." And with that he spurred Shadowfax into a run and they sped out of the stable.

Aurora turned and shouted after him a sardonic voice," Great so no pressure on me then!"


	13. Éowyn learns the truth

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 13:Éowyn learns the truth

Aurora grabbed her pack from off the bed, checking for the tenth time to make sure she had everything. Satisfied, she left her room slinging the pack over her shoulder. It was such a comforting feeling to have a pack over her shoulder and her long knives at her hips, she couldn't be more thankful to Legolas for bothering to bring them to her. She made her way through the Golden Hall and out into the sunlight surprised at how quiet things were. A few families were running around still gathering some of their possessions. Aurora quickly walked over to the cream colored horse that had been given to her to ride and hoisted herself onto its back. Aurora would willing admit that she wasn't much of a rider, she only rode a horse when she absolutely had to-- which was never. She had barely gotten on her horse when Théoden came over and silently motioned for the group to start heading out. As they started out, Aurora's horse fell into step next to Legolas' horse.

"Why is everybody so quiet? It's unnerving."She said to him.

He smiled at her and then glanced back at Gimli who was ridding back seat." I only wish Gimli were so quiet, he hasn't stopped swearing since he got on the horse." Aurora giggled as she saw that Legolas was telling the truth, Gimli was swearing under his breath.

Aurora's horse sidestepped without Aurora telling it to and she gripped the reigns till her knuckles were white she was so surprised. She looked at Legolas who was staring at her with raised eyebrows.

"I'm not much of a rider." She said sheepishly with a small grin.

"So I see." Legolas said with amusement in his voice.

"Well for crying out loud I'm from New York City, the only horses I see either are carting tourists around or have cops on them." Legolas looked sympathetic but Aurora was sure he had no idea what she was talking about.

" If you want, You and Gimli could switch places and you could ride with me. I'm sure you'd be a much more pleasant traveling companion." Legolas said as Gimli let out another string of curses about the horse.

"Shut up ya pointy eared bastard." Gimli said from the back of Legolas' horse, causing Aurora to laugh.

"As tempting an offer as that is Legolas, I do have some idea of how to ride a horse unlike poor Gimli over here." Aurora would have felt more sympathetic to Gimli if the situation hadn't been so funny.

"Tell me if you change your mind because I am not putting up with four days of this." Legolas said sending a glare over his shoulder at Gimli's use of vulgar language.

"Four days?"Aurora asked exasperatedly." It's gonna take four days to get there?"

"We have to walk slow enough for the women, children, and elderly to stay with us. Plus we have to worry about the terrain." Legolas said looking back at the long train of families that were behind them. Aurora looked around at the open terrain and all the people that were unable to fight.

"We're sitting ducks out here." Aurora said with a groan."This would be the perfect time for Sarumon to attack us." Aurora silently prayed to any god that would hear her to protect the people.

"Do not worry, Sarumon probably doesn't even know that we have left Edoras yet."

"I'm sure he does. He has the former advisor to the King working for him. Grima knew Théoden well, he knows the kings thought process, so he is very well aware that we have left, thanks to Grima. I swear next time I go to Isengard I'm going to tear that little worm Grima and Sarumon to shreds."She said through gritted teeth.

"Save yer anger lass, you'll need it when the fight comes." Gimli said between curses.

"Not to worry Gimli, I got plenty of anger and magic to last me through."Aurora said and glanced behind her again. "Speaking of which..." Aurora spotted Éowyn a little ways behind her and slowed her horse a bit so she was walking beside her.

"Hello Aurora."Éowyn said.

"What;s up?" Aurora asked casually causing Éowyn to look up expectantly." No that's not what I meant, 'what's up' means what's going on?"

"Oh,you talk very strangely. Do all people talk like that where you are from?"

"Yup. It may be human slang but my people picked up on it rather quickly."

"Your people?" Éowyn had that expectant look in her eyes again as she waited for Aurora to explain. The witch sighed and knew that there was no way around explaining her origins to Éowyn.

"What do you know about...witches?" Aurora asked in a hushed tone so that only Éowyn could hear her.

"They don't exist."Éowyn said without missing a beat, giving Aurora the exact answer she expected to hear.

"Did your uncle tell you that?"

"...Yes..." Éowyn said slowly as she started to realize where the conversation was headed.

"Well he was wrong." Aurora said flatly.

"You are a witch?" Éowyn said in an excited whisper." Prove it." Aurora almost fell off her horse with surprise. Éowyn had looked excited about what Aurora told her, and then she wanted Aurora to prove it!

"There is no way for me to prove it to you without proving it to everybody else too."

"Well go ahead! Why would you want to hide something so wonderful?" Éowyn looked like a child on Christmas morning. Aurora just shook her head in disbelief.

"Because of your uncle. If he knew I was a witch he would flip out. He 'd expect me to use my magic to win this damned war by myself. And I may be strong, but I am not that strong."

"Will you not be using your powers though anyway? We may need them."

"Oh we'll need them I want to tell him at the right moment.I don't want him to base his battle strategy around my powers, do you understand?"

Éowyn nodded vigorously." Oh this explains so much!"

Aurora again laughed at Éowyn's excitement." But I'm trusting you _as a friend _to keep this a secret. You can't tell anyone, ok ?"

" As a friend?" Aurora nodded again and Éowyn smiled brightly." I have a friend that's a witch! I have so many questions to ask you, would you mind if I asked you questions?"

"Pace yourself Éowyn, we got a four day journey ahead of us. But sure go ahead and ask away."

"Where to start, where to start?"

"Start at the beginning, and when you come to the end...stop."Éowyn nodded again and fell into silence as she thought over the questions to ask Aurora. Aurora was willing to admit she was surprised at this human girl, she showed such interest in Aurora's people, it was amazing. Éowyn was probably the first human to find out about witches that didn't pass out first thing. She was excited! And what's more is she wanted to learn about them. If only her own students were so eager to through her schooling years her instructors had told her not to make friends with humans "don't give shadows faces", is what they used to say. Aurora never believed that, in fact she felt she could protect humans better if she knew them personally. And Aurora liked the human woman, she was smart and eager to learn of other races. Aurora knew even without using her foresight, that her and Éowyn would be friends.


	14. Truth behind the myth

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 14:Truth behind the myth

Aurora waited patiently as Éowyn thought her questions over, no doubt there were a lot of them.Witches had always been a favorite character in fairy tales and had always been seen as mythical creatures, so explaining their existance became quite the chore.

"Why haven't we been told of the existance of Witches? How long have your people been around?" The million dollar question,and always the first one to be asked.

"Several reasons actually. The first one being that your world is called a "closed world" because you are completely oblivious to the other nine worlds outside this one.The humans in my world are called a "closed race" because they aren't aware of the other worlds existance and they aren't aware that they share their world with my people. The reason they don't is the same reason you don't know, because we don't tell them. Some races of humans are so inescure about their own existance that the knowledge of a race of people with immense power frightens them. What they don't realize is that we spend all our time trying to protect them from it,because they just aren't ready to hear it.The other worlds are fully aware of each others existance and they co-existe with each other for the most part thought there are the occasional trouble makers. There are only three specie of human in the universe, the one in my world the one in this world and the one in the Seventh Dimension, dimension being the word for world in the Witch language.Right now with this world and my worlds humans not knowing about us or any other world is for the best.

"My people have been around since the dawn of humans. Because thats our purpose, to protect humans.We protect them from other worlds, and themselves. Often times their conscience isn't their own, it's a Mind Reader manupulating their thoughts to prevent or promote something happening.I admit, even though we aren't suppose to directly get involved with human affairs we do find ourselves constantly tweaking certain situations." The history of witches actually far longer and more twisted than that, but it would take Aurora months to explain the entire history of her people, she was still teaching history to her students.Éowyn had the eager look on her face of a young student, Aurora couldn't believe the interest that this human was taking in her people.

"You said that humans weren't ready to know of your existance, but have you ever tried to let them know that you exist?"

"Yeah," Aurora scoffed," We tried that once a long time ago.That managed to spark the Salem witch trials, at which point the paranoid people of Salem started to hold trials to destroy all witches because they were so afraid of us. They ended up killing more innocent humans than witches. We also tried in this world, my ancestor or rather my name-sake tried, and good grief was that a disaster. The people here expected us to fix all their problems, _all _of them and if anything went wrong it was our fault. We could only take so much, so we disapeared from this dimension and only a few witches have ever returned. Mostly it's been me and my students."

"Students? You are a teacher?"

Aurora nodded." Yes, amongst other things. We have things very carfully set up. From the time your Gift awakens at age 10 until your powers are matured to a certain level and you can control them, which is about age 18, you are in school. We have about 10 schools around the world the biggest being in New York.Students are split up based on how they do on entrance exams, and its 5 students to every teacher. That teacher teaches them basic things such as battle tactics, history, other worlds languages, aura control, how to concentrate your magic under pressure, and basic spell casting. Then each student spends time with a specialist, or a witch with their specific Gift so they can learn how to use their specific powers. Students that you have can have gifts that range from Rock Formations to Weather Control or even Foresight.

"My students have quite the range to them, my youngest student is Arianna she's only thirteen and she's only a half-blooded witch, shes mostly Pixie, so we spend most her free time teaching her flight. My second youngest is Tansy and shes a Healer, and for being only fourteen she is more advanced than most graduates in the art of healing, she's gone past the normal cirriculum and has started to learn how to treat battle wounds. Then there's the twins, Judith and Ray.They're sixteen and a world of trouble.Judith is a Mind Reader and she's really good,she can break down mental barriers like nothing, unfortunatly she has a hard time keeping her mind to herself and is constantly diggin through other peoples minds. Ray is Pyro and he lacks control.If he loses his temper, he subconsiously sets something on fire, we've been working on that. And my eldest is Chad. He's set to graduate this summer as valedictorian in his Illusionist class.He even took extra classes including political history of the universe and hes going to intern with the Council next year.He's going to get his Masters licence so he can practice magic in all the Dimensions."

"Masters License? Council? I'm sorry Aurora but you have lost me."Éowyn shook her head, unable to retain all the information she had been given.

"Sorry Éowyn. You see when you graduate from our school you are given a license to practice magic in our world legally.Its a Basic's License, when you take extra courses in school you can get bumped up to a Masters License which means you can practice magic in all ten Dimensions.The Council is the ruling head of state when there is no one of royal blood that is in rule. Our heirarchy is set up differently that most other countries.On top is the king and queen, they both have eqaul power, a man can rule without a woman and a woman can rule without a man. Under them are the Council and Prince/Princess, they both have equal power in the event there is no King or Queen.The Council is there to balance out the power, since the King and Queen have responsibilities to other worlds too, the Council keeps an eye on what goes on with the witches.Even though the Council and Princess have equal power over the people the Council does have restraining power over the princess.Like right now there is no King or Queen there is a however princess though..."

"And thats you."Éowyn interrupted. Aurora glanced at Éowyn and cursed to herself. Damn that girl was smart, how on earth did she figure this stuff out?

"Yeah thats me. How did you know?"

Éowyn smirked mysteriously."The way you act. You have a presence about you that is very obviously nobility.And even if you were nobility its doubtful you'd be traveling around from world to world unescorted, you'd have to be of a high enough rank to be able to order the escort to stay behind." How true that really was, typically nobility did need some level of escort between worlds and only people of really high rank in her world could tell the escort not to come.It was odd how Éowyn could pck this stuff out and piece it all together.

"Wow you are smart.You figured out so much just through basic observation, you'd make an excellent spy.Wouldn't want you for an enemy thats for sure."

"I'm never allowed to do anything because my uncle is so terribly over protective. All I ever got to do ws observe from a distance, so I got really good at it.But please continue telling me of your Council."

"Well when you have a future in politics, you typically spend time working on the Council like I am.Since I named Chad my successor he is going to work for the Council so he can get familiarity with how things work. Next year though I'll officially take the throne of my people. "

"Scared?" Éowyn asked in a symphathetic voice.

"Terrified."Aurora said with a nervous laugh.

"I would be too. It takes a really strong person to actually take on that responsibilty when you could just abdicate.But it's not like you can't do it, you said yourself you've been serving with the Council so you know how things work politicatlly. HOw much worse could it posssibly?"

"A lot worse. If you make a mistake working for the Council, big deal they cover for you and no one gets hurt. If you make a mistake while Queen, lots of people can get hurt, your people pay the price for your mistakes.And believe me if there is one thing I do well, its make mistakes."

"Oh stop. If you don't believe in yourself enough to do it then it is going to be extremely difficult for you to do."

"You're right Éowyn.But its hard to think of yourself as leading an entire nation when I can't keep a goldfish alive for more than four days.Anyway, do you have any more questions about my people."

"Not your people per se, but I do have plenty of questions about your magic."

"Well ask away."


	15. Truth about magic

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 15: Truth about magic

Magic is by far one of the trickiest subjects to explain to anyone, Aurora knew this from experience.Because magic is about feeling, there is no easy way to describe magic to someone who has never felt it before.It was like explaining color to a man that was born blind.

"You keep mentioning something called an 'aura', what is that?" Aurora fell silent as she thought about the question. IT was going to take some time to explain it to her.

" An aura is a personal energy field that connects them to the magic the world gives off.See everyone has an aura, but a witch can use that aura to manipulate the magic the world gives off.Magic is really just energy that hasn't been molded to fit any specific need. There is energy all around us, in everything. There is magic in the earth, in the water, in the air we breath, in light, in darkness, there is magic everywhere.Our auras is how we take that energy and mold it into a spell to do as we desire with it."

"How do you know its there though?The aura, can you see it?Do you feel it?"

"Both actually. You can't see it, but you have an aura that is quite visible to a witch, when we want to see it.And we can feel it too, except unlike with sight, we can always feel an aura."

"What do they feel like? What do they look like?"

"Well,they feel like...fire.When I feel auras, I feel almost a kind of heat. But there are other things we can feel too, if you let off a strong enough emotion we feel that along with the heat your aura lets off.When a witch's aura gets to be really strong often times a human will be able to feel it, at which point when you do feel it it's like a burning sensation. The only thing that can get a witch's aura to a high enough point where a human can feel it is when its affected by one of two emotions, anger or love.It's a little hard to explain what an aura looks like, because the only way to explain it is color."

"Color?"

"Yes, an aura is defined by its color.Depending on how strong a witch is, the aura will change colors.The weakest a witch's aura will naturally be before a spell is cast is pink, any other race has a brownish color for an aura, except elves and wizards. Elves have a gold color and wizards have a grey color.The strongest a witches aura can be naturally is red. There was a legend that my greatest ancestor had an aura that was white, which is by far the strongest color for an aura. But it was just a legend, I don't actually think anyones aura can be actually be white."

"What about Sarumon? He is Sarumon the White, does that refer to his aura?"

"Good question. But no, when wizards are given a color I don't think it has with the color of their aura, though white is the highest you can go in their magic too."

"So witches and wizards are different then?"

"Very.Witches are stronger than wizards, because a wizard requires something to channel the magic through,namely their staff, and then it loses some of its potency."

"So if a wizards color has nothing to do with his aura, does that mean that Sarumons aura is black? He is evil and all."

Aurora quickly shook her head."Being 'evil' has nothing to do with the color of your aura.Your aura will remain the same color regardless. Many people think that if you have evil intentions you use 'black magic' and have a black aura, when neither exist. No such thing as black magic, because you can use the energy around you for evil intentions.And when a person is evil, their aura becomes cold and has the feel to it of a shadow. I said earlier that an aura feels hot when you feel it, but an evil aura feels cold and it feels like a shadow is covering it. Its really hard to explain what a shadow feels like unless you've felt it." Éowyn nodded in understanding.

"I wanted to ask you about something you mentioned earlier, you mentioned something called a 'Gift'?"

"Oh good something easier to explain."Aurora sighed with relief.She had been teaching her own students about Gifts for so long that it was easier for Aurora to explain them to anyone." A Gift is the special power given to each witch when they are born.The Gift doesn't awaken until the first Coming of Age at ten years old.Thats when you start school. A gift is a specific power that enables you to do things that others witches may not be able to do. Some Gifts, such a Weather Control, are much more common to have than other Gifts, such as Foresight. You have to take special training from another witch with the same Gift.Every witch is born with a Gift,the only exception are half-blooded witches because only some of them have Gifts.You stay in training till the second Coming of Age at eighteen, where you start to use your Gift in everyday life so you become more used to it, of course you're being supervised.At the third Coming of Age at age twenty-one you are free to use your Gift as you see fit within our laws.And of course your Gift is made stronger depending on the color of your aura."

"Whats your Gift?" Aurora cringed. She have known Éowyn would ask that question, it was only natural.Should she lie? No.SHe trusted Éowyn.She would just tell her the truth.

"Foresight."She said simply in a hushed voice so that she was sure only Éowyn could hear.

"Really? You are royalty, you are a teacher, and a foreseer. You must get a lot of respect. And if your foresight is made stronger by your aura, what color is your aura?"

"Would you like me to show you?" Aurora smiled as Éowyn nodded vigorously.Aurora figured that the safest way to do that was by only showing Éowyn a small part of her aura instead of lighting herself up like a christmas tree. She quickly hopped off her horse so she was walking in step with Éowyn, and showed her hand to the human. Aurora concentrated on her hand for only a moment before they could both see color.It started out a very subtle color and then grew in vibrance until Aurora hand was surrounded by a bright red mist that clung to her.

"Red?You must be quite the strong witch." There was an unmistakable note of awe in Éowyn's voice an she continued to stare at the red mist that danced around Aurora's fingers.

"It used to be green." Aurora said flatly and suddenly the red dissapeared and her hand was back to normal." But death has a way of changing things like that."

"Death?" Aurora snapped her mouth shut, she shouldn't have said that.What had she been thinking?

"Yeah, I was dead at one point.I died of a...um...broken heart."She said the last part very quietly."And then next thing you know, I'm back for no real reason."

"Well of course there is a reason! Maybe you were suppossed to die and come back so your aura was red. Maybe you were ment to do something really great with your life."

"That what everyone keeps telling me."

"And who knows, maybe as for the broken heart, there may be someone really wonderful that you will meet and truly love." Aurora smiled a bit at that and couldn't help but glance up in Legolas' direction. She could see his head was turned ever so slightly in their direction, and it was pretty obvious he was listening to their conversation, his elvish hearing _would _make eavesdropping easier.

"You like the elf don't you?" Éowyn had caught Aurora's glance at Legolas, and her ability to make great observations showed her the obvious.

"Shhhh!" Aurora hissed at her and ducked her head to hide the blush she felt creeping up her face.

"Oh come _on_! It is so obvious." Auroa rolled her eyes. Why was is so obvious to everyone else?


	16. Warg Attack

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 16:Warg Attack

After three days of travelling nearly non-stop, Aurora could not wait to get to Helm's Deep. They were suppossed to reach it sometime after mid-day.She walked along by herself in silence, having had enough of riding on a horse for the past 72 hours.She looked behind her to see Éowyn walking and talking with Aragorn a little ways behind her.She smiled to herself, it was obvious that Éowyn had a thing for the Ranger. Aurora knew that was how she must be around Legolas, the goofy smile, the blush, the flirtatious giggle. Aurora's smile faded, for she knew that no matter how much Éowyn felt for Aragorn, his heart belonged to Arwen and nothing would change that. Love was such a fickle thing, the quiet days of travelling had allowed Aurora more time than desired to think over such things. Something twinged in the back of Aurora's mind. The past few days had been quiet, too quiet.Aurora's mind automatically started going through the worstcase senarios,and how to fix them, Sarumon was not going to let them get to safetly, not without a fight he wouldn't.

"Beings forgive me."She mumbled to herself and she slowlyspread out her aura and opened to her mind to allow her Gift to start to work. The familiar feeling of being struck by lightning hit her and she stumbled a bit. Visions flew at her, some that were familiar and some knew ones. Creatures with four legs that looked like a bears with orcs ridding them...Wargs! Aurora had read about the creatures but had never encountered one.

"Aurora are you okay, you tripped back there..." Aurora cut Éowyn off, who had sped up to walk in step with her.

"We are about to be attacked!" She hissed urgently.

"Nonsense. We have riders up ahead, if anything happens..." Again Éowyn was cut off, but this time it was a man screaming followed by an odd shrieking noise. Aragorn ran up ahead to see what was going on.He returned two seconds later yelling at the king.

"Wargs! We're under attack!" Aragorn ran back to Éowyn and grabbed his horses reigns.

"You can't say I didn't tell you so." Aurora said exasperatedly as she jumped on her horse. Theoden rode up beside her an quickly explained to Éowyn to take the people to Helm's Deep,despite Éowyn's protests. Theoden then turned and rode off.

"I can fight."Éowyn whispered dejectedly.Aurora gave her a sympathetic glance.

"Be careful." Was the only thing she said before ridding off after the guys.As she galloped over the hill she saw maybe fifty plus Warg riders coming at them. Aurora cursed Sarumonunder her breath.

The two sides collided with horrible force, blood spewed everywhere along with body parts.Aurora had no desire to get into a sword fight with a Warg rider, especially when she was on horse back and had absoloutly no experience fighting from horse back. Aurora had a choice in front of her, she could stay on the horse and test her luck or she could get off the horse and use her magic, but that meant letting out her secret to everyone in Rohan. Aurora swore again and pulled her horse to a stop and quickly jumped off. She spread her aura out and let the magic flow. Casting an Éthem was risky business in the middle of a fight like this, but it was the quickest way to end it.A split second later half the orcs spontaniously combusted while the other half was pelted with levitated boulders and also got hit by pulses of magical engergy. Aurora felt her energy plunge. She had been careless with those magical pulses and had drained herself nearly entirely.She fell to her knees as she felt fatigue hit her like sack of bricks.She kneeled there for a moment completely unaware of how the fight was going.

"Whats this, an unprotected woman on a battle field?" Aurora glanced up to see an orc standing next to her, his sword raised high to strike her down.

"I'mnot _that _tired." She mumbled and she cast the most fatal spell she knew, the one that took them to the Netherworlds.She cast the orc into the darkness as fast as she knew how and then got herself out of there.When she re-entered Middle-earth her fatigue was so bad that her knees couldn't hold her and she slumped to the ground in a heap.For having such a strong aura she got tired out really easily when casting an Éthem wrong.

"Aurora!"She heard Legolas shout her name and then felt herself being lifted up.

"I'm okay." She mumbled quietly." I cast a spell wrong and tired myself out, but I'm okay."She forced herself to open her eyes and look up at him.She smiled when she saw the look of concern in his eyes, because it reminded her so much of Bardis.

"Are you sure you are alright?" He asked and Aurora nodded.

"You should go make sure that everyone else is alright, I'll get myself up in a second." Legolas sat her up and made sure that she was okay before he walked off to find the others. Aurora looked around the battle field and saw the extent of the damage her spell had done. She was pleased to see that the boulders and magical energy pulses had done almost as much damage as the fire.But of course there were many human casualties.

"Damn." She whispered and forced herself to stand up.Her legs were shaky and she knew the only reason they were holding her up was by pure adrenaline. She slowly hobbled over to where Gimli was pulling himself out from under a pile of two wargs and an orc.

"What happened to you ?" She asked.

"I was about to ask you the same question lass. You look terrible." Aurora frowned at looked down at herself. Yeah she was a little dirty and her hair was ruffled out of place and she was shaking so bad she could barley stand, but it wasn't that bad.

"I cast a spell wrong and used up all my energy."

"You cast a spell wrong?"Gimli repeated a little dumfounded.

"Hey spell casting isn't an exact science, the most experienced of witches mess up sometimes."Aurora mumbled trying to defend herself. She turned away from the dwarf and searched the battle ground for Aragorn, and was alarmed when she couldn't see him. "Hey guys, where's Aragorn?"

"Aragorn?" Legolas called out to his friend, but recieved no answer.Gimli, too, called out but was answered byt the same silence Legolas had recieved. Legolas walked over near a cliff and searched the ground, only to be disturbed by a nasty gurggling sound that was in fact an orc laughing, or at leasttrying to.Gimli walked over to it and out his axe at the orcs neck.

"Tell me what happened and I will ease your passing."Gimli's voice had taken on a menacing tone.

"He's...dead."The orc managed to force out." He took a little tumble off the cliff." Legolas knelt down and grabbed the orc by the throat.

"You lie." He hissed, but the orcdidn't answer back, he tried to laugh but choked on his own blood and died.Aurora hobbled over to him to look down on the creature. Legolas glanced at something the orc was holding and pulled it out to look at it.

"Oh god." Aurora whispered as she recognized the pendant that Aragorn alwys wore, the one that had been given to him by Arwen.The look of pure sorrowon Legolas' face was enough to break Aurora's heart. He got up and walked over to the cliffto stand by Gimli, and Aurora hobbled after them.As she looked over the cliff she saw the unwelcomed sight of a fourty foot drop that was broken by a raging river.Weighed down by both sorrow and fatigue, Aurora dropped to her knees with a whimper. Theoden came up behind her and looked over the cliff then turned to a guard behind them.

"Put the wounded on horses,thw wolves of Isengard will return. Leave the dead." Veryones head swiveled around to give the king a look of disgust, but he had turned and walked away. As Aurora continued to stare down at the river, something in the back of her mind kept trying to tell her something was wrong, something obvious. Fatigue jumbled the feeling and Aurora couldn't understand what is was that was so wrong.

"Somethings wrong." She whispered and tried to get to her feet but failed. The adrenaline of the earlier moments had faded and Aurora was in worse condition that before.Again she tried to stand and made it to her feet before her legs gave out again. Legolas reached over and caught her.

"Aurora whats wrong?"

"No energy, cast spell wrong." She was barley able to get a sentence out. Legolas put an arm under her legs and one across her back and gently picked her up.

"Gimli you'll have to ride alone, because Aurora needs to ride with me." Legolas' voice faded away as the welcomed darkness of sleep over took Aurora.


	17. Phone conversations

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Author's Note: Hey guys this is just kinda a filler chapter, I'm having a massive writers block and i wrote this chapter trying to get the creativeness going again. I dont know if its working :)

Chapter 17:Phone conversations

Legolas held Aurora as they headed towards Helm's Deep.She was still out cold and it didn't look like she was gonna wake up soon either. Aurora shifted with the movement of the horse and her head came to rest on Legolas' chest, and he smiled down at her. She looked so small and vunerable like this, so different than the first time Legolas had met her. At the Council of Elrond she had looked so strong and so cold, like a rock. Travelling with her had shown sides of her that it didn't seem the witch at the Council of Elrond could have had.Theoden rode up beside him then, and cast a glance down at Aurora.

"How is she fairing?" He asked.

"Well enough, she is just tired." Theoden continued to stare at her for a few seconds before he asked another question.

"The fire and the boulders...those came from her did they not?"Legolas didn't answer. It wasn't his place to tell Theoden or anyone of Aurora's origins and powers.Theoden continued," She is a witch.I know for I have had dealings with her kind before...I don't trust them."

"Learn to." Legolas said simply." Aurora has proven her worth time and time again, and she is loyal to our cause."The conversation stopped there, whether by Theoden loss of words or by them approaching Helm's Deep was irrelavent. The quickly crossed the plain that was directly in front of the mountain fortress. As they made their way up the cause-way the huge dorrs opened for them and they rode inside the stone walls. Seeing the wounded soldiers, people swarmed around to help. Legolas slid off his horse and gently pulled Aurora off and into his arms. He glanced around looking for Éowyn, and spied her talking to Gimli, by the grief stricken look on her face Legolas knew that the dwarf had told her of Aragorn. Legolas sighed and then moved over to where they stood carrying Aurora.

"Lady Éowyn." He called hoping to get her attention. She turned to him and made a face when she saw Aurora.

"Good grief what did she do now?"

"She unfortunatly cast a spell wrong. She needs a place rest." Éowyn nodded and motioned for him to follow her. She navigated him through Helm's Deep, up and past the make-shift throne room to a small room that looked more like a closet.A pile of furs that was suppossed to be a bed occupied the room.

"She can rest here."

"Thank you." Legolas said as he gently set her down on the furs, situating her as best he could. When he was satisfied she would be comfortable he stood and turned to Éowyn." Where is her bag?"

"Over there." Éowyn led him to where the bag was. He knelt down and opened the pack, and extracted her cell phone. Éowyn gave him a curious look but he ignored it and tunred his full attention to the phone in his hand. His knowledge of how to use it was extremely limited, but it didn't look like it could be that hard.He hit a button and the screen lit up.In small letters in the bottom right corner it said 'contacts'. He hit the button under it and the screen changed to a list of names. Using the little buttons shaped like arrows, Legolas scrolled down the list till he found the name he wanted.He wasn't sure which button to hit in order to make the phone dial he number. After a moment of thought he hit the little button that had a green phone on it. The screen changed a again to exactly what he wanted to see, ' Dialing : Tansy'. He put the phone to his ear and waited.

_"Hello?" _A cheery female voice answered.

"Is this Tansy, Aurora's healer student?" He asked cautiously.

_"Yes it is. Who is this?"_

My name is Legolas, I've met you once before when you cam to hea Aurora's arm."

_"Oh yeah, you're the elf. I remember you. So what's up?" _Legolas recognized the phrase, Aurora hasd explained that it meant "whats happnening?" or "what's going on?".

" Well its about Aurora."

_"Oh crap."_ She mumbled.

" We were in a battle today and Aurora cast a spell, but she did so incorrectly and she is asleep but I wasn't sure if that was all that is wrong with her, and if or when she'll wake up."

_"When a witch casts a spell wrong and it drains all her energy, so her body needs to get the energy back realy quickly. So we go into a kinda comatose,it helps us get energy back faster. She should be up and fully energized in about three hours, unless she has other injuries... She doesn't have other injuries does she?"_

"That that I can see.Would you be able to come here and check up on her."

_" I would but the Council has me under surveilance and I can't leave New York. I can tell you what to look for over the phone but I can't come there."_

" Well that sounds like it might work."Legolas said slowly.

"_Okay are you near her?"_

"Yeah I'm standing right next to her." Legolas said and he knelt down next to the pile of furs.

_" Okay here's what you have to do. Lift her shirt up so you can see her stomach." _Legolas paused at her instructions, and swallowed hard. Then with a roll of his eyes he slowly lifted her shirt to reveal the smooth pale skin of her stomach.

"Done."

_"Do you see any bruises?" _

"No."

_"Then touch on the area underneath her rib cage on both sides to feel for swelling."_

Maybe I should have Éowyn do this." Legolas said hastily, which was followed by and odd muffled noise on the other end of the line.It took him a little while to figure out that she was laughing."What are you laughing at?"

_"You." _Tansy didn't try to hide her laughter then._But anyway would you just feel for the freaking swelling?" _Legolas sighed in annoyance and felt Aurora's stomach for any swelling.

"No there's no swelling." He mumbled.

_"Okay no bruising, no swelling,I'm assuming there's no blood."_

"That's right."

_"And if there are no broken bones which you can check for on your own, then as far as I can tell there's nothing else wrong."_

"Thank you for the help."

_"Any time. If you need anything else just give me a call. Bye."_ The other end went dead. Legolas hit the little red button and set the phone down. He glanced at Aurora then hastily pulled her shirt back over her stomach. He stood up and left the room so she could rest in peace.


	18. Awakening

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Author's Note:I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while but things have been crazy around here, so i am even sorrier to say my updates may become fewer and far between.You see my oldest brother has just gotten engaged and wants to get married in April, and I'm one of the bridesmaids so we have lots of planning to do and we don't even have a year to do it! This chapter is just a filler chapter, and i have to sadly admit its not my best work.Please be patient with me :o(

Chapter 18:Awakening

The light that was consiousness slowly returned to Aurora's mind.She cracked her eyes open, trying to adjust them to the light. As she opened them fully, the fuzziness dissapeared to reveal the room she was in. Aurora sat up with a groan and looked around.She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten here.Aurora tested her legs and got off the bed of furs and walked around the small room. As she paced the room she tried to remember everything she could.She remembered travelling, then a warg attack,a fight, casting a spell wrong...and Aragorn falling over a cliff. Aurora dug as far into her mind as she could go thinking about it.

"He took a little tumble off of the cliff."She whispered the orcs words to herself. The image of the raging waters below the cliff flashed in her mind.It didn't look like Aragorn could have survived.But something wasn't right in the back of her mind, something big.She shook her head as she thought.If Aragorn was going to die in the warg attack, why didn't her foresight warn her? Her Gift had been nothing but a mystery to her since she had started using it, it would warn her only of certain things. With a shake of her head, Aurora opened the door and walked out of the room.She wasn't surprised to see that the corridoor outside the room was made of the gray stones too. Hearing voices farther down the cooridoor, she quickly headed down in their direction.The cooridoor, she found, led to a kind of make-shift throne room where Theoden, Legolas, Gimli, and several of the kings guards were leaning over a table, discussing something.

"Guys what's going on?"Every head tunred to look at her.Legolas stepped away from the table and came to stand beside her.

"You're up a little early, how are you feeling?"

"I feel fine. What do you mean up early?"Aurora gave him a quizzical look.

"From what Tansy said I assumed you'd be asleep another hour."

"Tansy's here?"

"No. I called her on your cell phone to ask her." Aurora bit her bottom lip trying her hardest not to laugh, and failed miserably, keeling over in giggles."What is so funny?" Legolas asked slightly perturbed.

"An elf using a cell phone, I just can't see it." Aurora managed to gasp out between fits of laughter.She soon got herself under control and stopped laughing."I'm sorry Legolas, it's just a funny thought.So what are you guys doing?" Aurora tried to change the subject.

"Battle strategies.And it has not been easy, there are many variables."

"Maybe I can help, I teach battle strategies at the school." Legolas shrugged as if to say 'go for it'.The both walked back to the table, which was covered in maps of Helm's Deep and the surrounding area.

"Feelings better lass?"Gimli asked.

"Much. So what have you some up with so far?"

"Nothing noteable.We have suffered a loss of men,we lost many soldiers in the warg attack, and many more were severly injured."Theoden sounded dejected.

"Do you not have a healer here?"Asked surpised.One of the guards on the other side of the table answered for the king.

"Not one experienced enough."

" Well I might be able to fix that, Legolas where did you put my cell phone?" Legolas handed her the cell phone which he had been carrying with him.

" Tansy is under surveilance, so she cannot leave New York city."Legolas said quietly.

" Yes I figured she would be, but Hazel may be able to find a way around that." She quickly punched in Hazels number and held the phone to her ear. It only rang once before Hazel picked up.

_"Let me guess, you're in trouble of some kind?Tansy told me about you casting a spell wrong and such.So what horrible fate is about to befall you now?" _Aurora smiled at Hazels' words.

"Hazel you act as if you don't know.Apparently Tansy has been put under surveilance, but I need her advanced healing skills here."

_" I know. I've already been working on it, and we'll all be there in a few minutes."_

" ' We'll all' ? Who is ' we all' ?"

_"The Five."_

"You're bringing all my students to Middle-Earth?"

_"It was the only way."_

"Fine I'll just have to believe you, because I don't want to have to sit through the details of how you intend to break the law."

_"See you in a few." _Hazels hung up and Aurora could only shake her head.

"Well Theoden I managed to get you an advanced healer."She said when she walked back over to the table," She'll be here in a few moments..." Aurora felt the magic around her ripple and shift to form a portal." Scratch that, they're here." Everyone turned to see a hole open up and a pile of people spill out.

"Ray get your flippin' foot out of my face!"

"I could if Arianna would fold up her wings so i could see what I'm doing."

"Whoever has an elbow in my stomach can remove it!" Aurora started laughing as she recognized the tangled mass of limbs as four of her students. Chad came throught the portal next with Hazel right behind him.

"Oh come on guys, why is this hard for you?" Chad reached down and started to untangle his friends.Soon the mass became four distinguishable people.As soon as they were all untangled they stood up and dusted themselves off.

"So..." Tansy said, " You called?"


	19. New Developments

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Author's Note: Hey guys, sorry i haven't updated in forever, but like I said my life has gotten a little outta control.But here is the next chapter, and i just wanted you to know in this chapter and for future reference that anything in _"italics"_ is a thought/mind conversation between Judith and Aurora and her other students.

Chapter 19:New Developments

Aurora quickly caught everybody up on the current situation and they listened with quiet attentivenes.

"Sounds like quite the predicament."Judith said when Aurora had finished and the others nodded in agreement.

"We'll help in any way we can, though."Arianna piped up encouragingly from where she stood next to Hazel.Tansy reached over and picked up her healing kit which had been carelessly discarded when she had tumbled through the hole.

"Just show me who needs healing, Arianna can help me ."

"Chad and I can help with battle stratagies." Judith offered.

"And I'll sit here and pretend to have something to do."Ray said cheerfully.

"Don't worry, there's plenty for everyone to do, we just need to prioatise." The sound of the door opening brought everyones attention to the other side of the room where Éowyn was entering holding an armful of candles. She looked up from juggling the candles and gave a surprised glance when she saw several people she didn't know.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know I was interrupting anything I was just bringing in some more candles..."She trailed off nervously.

"Éowyn it's okay. I was just bringing my students yup to speed on the situation."She explained as Éowyn joined them next to the table.

"You're Aurora's students?" Éowyn's question was responded to with a collective nod." I've heard so much about you. I can even begin to tell how much your magic will help us here."

"One moment, you knew she...they were witches?"Théoden questioned his niece.

"Well yes Uncle, isn't it obvious?" She said and then turned back to Aurora's students." Which one of you is Tansy?"

_"Erm...Aurora did you tell her about us?" _Judith's voice resounded in Aurora's mind, crystal clear.

_" Éowyn? Yeah I told her about you guys there's nothing wrong with that. She's very trusting and very accepting, she couldn't wait to meet you all." _Aurora answered quickly, she could feel Judith give a mental shrug and pull out of her mind.

"I'm Tansy." Tansy answered Éowyn's ealier question, completely oblivious to Judith and Aurora's mental conversation.

"Great. Aurora's has told me what an expert healer you are, and we really need one.I can show you where they wounded are if you follow me." Tansy turned to look for confirmation from Aurora, who gave her a slight nod. Tansy turned back to Éowyn and gave her a half smile.

"Well okay, but I'll need Arianna's help." Tamsy motioned to the pixie. Éowyn looked at Arianna, who was giving her a look almost as if challenging the human to say something about her wings.

"Of course, follow me."

"Ray and I will come with you." Aurora volunteered. Ray looked at her surprised and Aurora gave him look a that simply said: Don't Argue. Ray rolled his eyes and started to follow the others.

"What are we suppossed to do?" Chad and Judith asked in unision.

"Stay here...make friends." Aurora answered over her shoulder as they left the room.

"Huh. Well I have to go back to New York, tell Aurora I'll call her later." Hazel said as she prepared to leave.

"What? What about us?""_Are you seriously gonna leave us here with _them?Judith asked both aloud and through her mind.

"Do what Aurora said, stay here..make friends."And then she dissapeared. Judith swore to herself.

"They're all insane." She said to Chad.

"That's a bold statement comming from you."Chad retorted flatly. Judith glared at him and then looked at the men standing around the table as if seeing them for the first time. Her eyes landed on Legolas and she smiled.

"You must be Legolas." She said though she knew the answer.

"Yes," Legolas replied shocked,having never met Judith before," How did you know?"

"Oh you're pretty well known amogst certain witches in our world." Judith said with a smile. Legolas opened his mouth to inquire further, but Aurora came jogging back into the room."Where's Ray?" Judith changed the subject over to her absent twin.

"I found something for him to do, more speciafically using his fire abilities to meld certain parts of the outer wall back together.Good thing he has such control over the fire." A guard suddenly dashed into the room and breathlessly gasped out that there was some disturbance in the courtyard.

"Wait," Aurora said as Théoden started to check on this 'disturbance', " Legolas, Gimli,could you please go and check on this, I need to speak with Théoeden." Legolas and Gimli glanced at the king, not sure what to do.

"Go." Théoden said, and they both left quickly.As soon as they left Aurora turned to the king.

"By now I now that you know that I am a witch. And I am sure you are very upset that I didn't tell you..."

"Is there some question as to why that is?" Théoden asked, cutting Aurora off."Could it be that Witches were banned from my lands, or could it be that witches had association with the man we are now fighting?" The king asked curtly.

"I had my reasons."Aurora answered back.

"Indeed." Théodon hissed.

"Knowing I was a witch may have endangered you.That and made you over confident in yourself because you had a witch on your side.I couldn't have you basing every desicion you made on whether or not I was a strong enough witch to bail you out, thats not my job.I had every intention of telling you when the time was appropriate, and certain developments have made that time now."

"What developments?" Théoden asked.

"Those developements."Said Aurora and she simply looked at the door on the far end of the room. As she did the door opened and Aragorn walked through. A look of pure shock washed over Théodens face.

Judith leaned in to whisper to Chad," Damn, she's good."


	20. Welcomed Help

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 20:Welcomed help

" A great host you say?" Théoden asked after Aragorn had retold of the recent events.

"All Isengard is emptied."

"How many?" Theodens tone suggested he didn't really want an answer, but after a quick calculation, Aragorn gave him one.

"Ten thousand strong at least." The effect of his words was felt around the room.Everyone drew in a quick breath as their hearts plunged into the floor boards.

_"TEN THOUSAND!" _Judith's voice shrieked in Aurora's mind, and she could tell from the way Chad flinched, she had been in his mind too.

"_Calm down Judith." _Aurora tried to coax Judith in settling down.

_"Calm down! Calm Down! Aurora I can feel the presence of minds and I can tell you that there aren't even close to that number here.And he just said they are gonna be here by nightfall! Night fall Aurora!" _

_"I heard him, now shut up so I can think!" _Aurora yelled back, though no one in the room heard her but Judith.

"Well...Witch...what have you to say to that?"Théoden mumbled as he walked pst her n his pacing.

"I say we better start working on one really good defense strategy, cause we are going to need it. Tansy is healing the soldiers that were wounded earlier in the fight with the wargs, and if I know her she'll have them fit for battle in time.Though it will be no where near ten thousand, those few men will help. I suggest you fortify this place."

"The orcs were not the only problem though Aurora." Aragorn saud addressing her directly." With the orcs there were other creatures also, they looked much like the creature that you discovered on the beach at Part Galen."

"Yaderins?"Aurora said in a horrified whisper.Aragorn nodded slowly.Aurora breathed slowly forcing down the rising panic in her chest."This is obviously the last act of a desperate man. He's afraid so hes doing something drastic. But I have something just as Drastic for him should it come to it. He is not going to win this war." Aurora said stubbornly with more cionfidence in her voice than she felt. Théoden nodded in agreement.

"Come." He said and led them out of the throne room and into the rest of the fortress. As he led them to the front gate, he spoke to his guard."I want every man and strong lad able to bear arms,. to be ready by nightfall." The guard scurried off to do his lords will. Théoden then turned to the rest. "We will cover the causeway from above. No army has ever set foot inside the Deeping Wall or the HornBurg." Aurora could clearly see why. THe stone walls were at least three feet thick and a hundred feet high. It was well situated for battle...against orcs. But they all knew that these weren't just orcs, as Gimli willingly pointed out.

"This is no rabble of mindless orcs. These are Uruk Hai, there armour is thick, and their shields broad."

"I have fought many wars Master Dwarf. I know how to defend my own keep." Theoden said defernsively and he walked inside the walls.Aurora tured to Judith and Chad and whispered to them.

"Go get Bardis." They didn't waste a second leaving. Aurora turned and ran ro catch up with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the King.

"They will break upon this fortress like water on stone.Sarumon's forces with pillage and burn. We've seen it before. Crops can be resown, homes rebuilt, but behind these walls we will outlast them."She heard him say as she caught up to him.

"They don't come to destroy Roahn's crops or villages, they come to destroy its people." Aragorn stated as he walked behind Theoden.Theoden suddenly turned around and caught Aragorn's arm.

"What would you have me do? Look at my men, their courage hangs by a thread. If this is to be our end, then I would have them make such an end as to be worthy of remeberance." Aurora scoffed. She had heard enough. She shoved past Aragorn and Theoden giving him a look of comtempt.

"You want to die and be remebered Théoden, fine. But don't put it on your mens gravestone." She said as she walked away from them not bothering to stick around for his reply.She walked back into the throne room, which was oddly vacant.She walked over to her bag and shuffled through the contents till she pulled out the Magic Book of Spells. This book had caused so much trouble for her in the past, it was amazing to think that for once it might help get her out. She undid the clasps and opened the soft leather cover. Some of the spells were older and the words faded, power seethed out of the pages that Aurora flipped through. She stopped at a page sudenly. The words words were in an archaic language that Aurora was too farmiliar with, since it was used in all the older spells. She ran her finger over the page. Her ancestor, her name-sake had written this spell,had been the first to use it.She had been the only witch to survive casting this spell, and Aurora didn't supposse she'd be the second. She read through the words, looking to see where and how the spell must be cast, and anything else that may be needed to cast the spell. So hard was her concentration she didn't hear Legolas come up behind her.

"Please don't think you have to do this." He whispered softly in her ear.She shut the book hastily and turned to face him.

"Do what?"

"Redeem yourself for the sins you've accussed yourself of in your head by killing yourself off for some great purpose."Legolas said glancing down at the book.

"Its for just in case.I hope I don't have to use it..."

"But you do hope that you do.Somewhere inside you you've convinced yourself that your death is what will bring about the end of all this, when in reality it may just make it worse."

"Legolas I have seen how this could end, and its not...well damnit you can imagine what will happen.And I can't live with the thought of so many people dieing, not when there is something I can do about it.No matter how much people I care for may hate it."

Legolas sighed." From the day I met you you've done nothing but put yourself in situations where you'll get hurt, but is it really worth it?"

Aurora looked up at him and smiled sheepishly, "It is now more than ever." A moment of silence passed between them both weighing each others words."I should probably go and see how Tansy is doing." She whispered, and he nodded but she didn't move. It was like some invisible force was holding her in place.

"What the hell is going on here?" Both their head turned to see Bardis coming through a portal, hauling Judith and Chad behind him.

"What do you talking about?"Aurora asked an edge of nervousness in her voice.

"I'm talking about this whole battle/war thing you are involved in with TEN THOUSAND orcs and Yaderins, and what are you doing with that book?" He said catching sight of the Book which Aurora had poorly tried to hide from his sight.

"Killing herself."Legolas mumbled which earned him a glare from Aurora.

"Who's side are you on anyway?"She hissed.

"Yours, you just don't see it."

"Aurora." Bardis' tone demanded an answer.

"Okay, before your head explodes, and before you get me in trouble let me explain."She shot a pointed look at both Bardis and Legolas." This is only for the most extreme situations. If there is not other way out of what we are into, I'll use this but not in any other case.Right now instead of stressing out over my Book we should be working with the few resources we have in formulating a plan."

"I agree." Aragorn said as he came in the room followed by Theoden.He looked a little worn and for the first time Aurora noticed his bloody shoulder.

_"Hey Judith, can you call Tansy?I think Aragorn needs a little Medical attention." _Aurora reached out with her mind to contact her student.

"_Yeah I already did, she's finishing up with her last patient and then she'll head back here. Ray and Arianna are coming too." _Aurora thanked Judith mentally.

"Okay," Aurora started," We have a lot to do if we are gonna be ready for thos orcs tonight. And even though I know some of you aren'tthrilled with the idea of witches or other Dimensionalpeoples helping,"She shot a meaningfulglare at Théoden, " but belive us when we say we are more prepared against the yaderins than you are. Your hope for survivalis found soley in us watching each others backs, no matter the little differences we have between us," Again Aurora looked at Théoden," So you arejust going to have to trust me."


	21. Hard Choices

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

I also use alot of lines from the movie, these also belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and New line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

Chapter 21: Hard Choices

Through a combined effort Aurora and her students managed to organize the jobs that needed to be done and evenly distribute the work amongst thenselves without too many arguements. Judith and Ray were to go to the armoury and help get all the men situated for battle. Arianna was to help Éowyn get all the women and children into the caves along with the provisions they would need. Tansy was to go into the caves and look after the sick or injured after she was done examining Aragorn's shoulder. And Chad was to stay with Aurora and help work out battle plans, escape plans, and other small details along with Bardis. Judith, Ray, and Arianna had already left the throne room to take care of their jobs, while Tansy worked on Aragorn's shoulder.

"Aurora you have been a terrible influence on these guys, you already have them jumping over cliffs."Tansy said with a smile, shooting Aurora meaniful look.

"If you are refering to the incident with the eagle, I did not jump...I slipped."Aurora said defensively.

"So you say.But I saw you running towards the edge of that cliff like the devil himself was chasing you instead of the eagle whose nest you happen to come across.But Aragorn is in much better shape than you were, What did you have again?"

"Three broken ribs, a slashed shoulder, and thirteen stitches above the right eye eyebrow"Chad supplied while trying to supress laughter.

"Don't forget her twisted ankle."Bardis said, not raising his head from the map he was examining at the table.

"Yes, thank you. You have proven I am the clumsiest woman to have walked the face of the earth."

"More like the most reckless." Said Chad, Bardis,and Tansy in unision.

"But moving on to bigger problems,"Aurora said sternly glaring at them all in turn, " we have to worry about the unavoidable battle.Those orcs are going to be here tonight and I do not want to be caught without some kind of plan.So if you are done retelling the stories of my...exploits, we can work on this." Aurora motioned to the table which was covered in maps and other miscellaneous things.

"Why not just call in the Alliances, they would be of more use than anyone else."Tansy asked as she continued to clean Aragorn's wounds.

Aurora turned to Chad, " Explain to Tansy why we can't call in the Alliances."

"Do you seriously want to go over out lessons _now?_" Chad asked disbelief in his voice.

"Do you not know your lessons?Because if you can't answer this questions correctly then you are going to have one major report to write when you get back to New York." Aurora shot back, and Bardis laughed as Chad shook his head.

"We can't call in the Alliances because this techinically isn't a Witch war, so we can't call in our alliances since our involvement is strictly personal and not a political thing."Chad said slowly looking at Aurora for any sign that he had answered wrong.

"Even if you could convince the Alliances to back up your involvement in a "human" war, if you'll excuse the term, it would give Sarumon the right to go outside Middle-Earth to attack the alliances that did get involved, and that would start an InterDimensional War."Bardis said stepping away from the table and to where Aurora stood, " And even if it didn't start a war outside this world, the Council would still skin you alive."He said the last part more to Aurora than to answer Tansy.

"Okay..." Tansy said quietly," What about just calling _our _army?"

"Then it would become a Witch war an our Alliances would have to get involved."Aurora answered.

"And again, the Council would skin her alive." Bardis said.

"With how many rules I have broken since being here, I'm getting skinned no matter what, so the Council isnt a problem.But as you can see we have very limited options.We are going to have to get creative and resourceful.Théoden how many men do you have?" Aurora turned to Theoden, acknowledging his presence for the first time since her students had shown up.

"About three hundred." Bardis, Chad, and Tansy's mouths dropped in unision.

"Is that including all the soldiers I patched up?" Tansy asked, her eyes were as big as saucers and there was fear in her voice. Théoden nodded in response to her question, and Tansy's face paled beyond comparison.

"I think 'creative and resourceful' is a terrible understament for what we are going to have to do."Chad mumbled.Aurora's face didn't show fear, it showed only determination and resolve.

"Tansy, I think you've finished with Aragorn. Go find Arianna and take her back to New York with you.If you run into Judith or Ray, send them back here please."Tansy nodded, grabbed all her medical equipment and bolted off to find Arianna.

"What are you going to do?"Chad asked, but Aurora didn't respond to his question, she walked over to the table and stared down at the maps with a look of such intensity as neither Bardis nor Chad had seen before.Judith and Ray came flying into the room, running for all they were worth.

"Aurora what is going on? Tansy and Arianna just left!"Ray huffed as he stopped next to table.

"I know, I told them to leave."

"Why?"Judith looked completely confused.

"Because they are too young to be here for this. You three on the other hand are old enough to make the choice for yourself.So, you know the situation, you know the odds, the know the small chance of survival...but I am going give you the choice of staying and fighting or going back to New York. I won't think any less of you for leaving, in fact I would pray for your protection that you would leave, but as I said, the choice is yours." It was evident that it pained Aurora to even think of asking her students to stay in such a terrible situation, putting their lives on the line. Judith,Ray, and Chad went to stand off from the group but not one of them spoke out loud, instead using Judith's Gift to have a three way mind conference.It was a heartbreaking moment of silence for Aurora as she waited for her student's decision. Finally they broke up and came back to the table, Chad was the first to speak up.

"Since the day you started teaching us, you've taught us that human life is to be protected and that people with our power have the responsibility to use it to make things right. And our leaving in a time of crisis for these people wouldn't be right by anyone...least of all you.You shouldn't have to defend them by yourself, not to mention what Sarumon is doing is just wrong. We're staying." Judith and Ray nodded in agreement. Aurora nodded once in understanding.

"Then go prepare yourselves," She whispered, then she looked at Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, " I suggest you do the same." They took the hint and left the throne room. Aurora let out a heavy sigh filled with all the emotion she had consealed during the past few minutes, then turned to Bardis."They may as well have signed their own Death Certificate, and I let them."


	22. Weather the Storm

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the People from Lord of the Rings, so most of the stuff you recognize belongs to the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien. My people are Aurora, Chad, Arianna, Tansy, Ray, Judith, Hazel, Prince Bardis, and the witches Council. Please don't use any of these people or my ideas unless you ask. But if you ask...maybe.

Author's Note: I am really sorry I haven't written in a while, my life has been crazy and I totally forgot about my fic. But The person who first encouraged my to begin writting and moved back into town and is telling my to finish the story...so i am trying to find more time to write. Enjoy.

Chapter 22:Weather the Storm

Aurora sat on the steps in front of the meeting house of Helm's Deep, in quiet contemplation.There was much to think about before the Uruk Hai got there, much of it had to do wih weighing the choices she had.A thought had occured to her soon after she had dismissed her students to ready themselves, one that shocked Aurora. When her parents had died she had set out on a vigorous, and some said fruitless, journey to unite all the Dimensions into one solid alliance.She had started, and she knew she had to finish it, because as of right now those few alliances that there were had sworn thier allegiance to _her _and not to her people. Without her those alliances would fall apart, this Aurora knew. But if the people of Rohan didn't win here tonight, then all would fail...Aurora had seen in when she had purposefully looked into the future only a moment ago.If she sacrificed herself here tonight, then Middle Earth was saved and the rest of the universe lost...and yet if she didn't sacrifice herself then there was a very good chance that Sauron's evil would spread to the other Dimensions.

Before Aurora could look too much into the matter, Aragorn came charging out the doors, nearly running Aurora over before he took a second to see she was there.

"You okay?" Aurora asked as Aragorn stopped to stand on the step below her. With his back turned he sighed almost in defeat and shook his head. They sat in silence as Aurora waited for Aragorn to elaborate.

"Is there hope?" He said it so quietly Aurora wasn't sure if it was her own fears come back to haunt her.

"You know the answer to that Aragorn, so why ask?"

"I need to hear you say it."

"Tell me what you want me to say and we'll work from there." Aragorn paused for a pregnant moment before answering her challange.

"Tell me I'm not crazy and that there is hope for us to win here tonight."

"Fine, you're not crazy." She said, and couldn't help but notice the tension that gathered in Aragorn's shoulders when she didn't finish the statement.

"Then there is no hope?" He asked as he turned to look at her.

"Hope is for each man to decide for himself Aragorn, I can't tell you whether you have hope to survive because you're still deciding that.The future is determined by each man's decision to fight for what is right, regardless of the odds of survival." She paused for a moment before she finished. "If you don't believe that victory is possible, Aragorn, then stand back and allow Sauron to run rampant through this world. You have something those Uruk Hai can't have...something worth fighting for.So does everyone else here. If you use that power that that gives you, than you cannot be defeated. But if looks strictly at numbers and odds, then you will fall."

"No manner of magic to help us now I supposse." Aragorn mumbled, more to himself than to Aurora.

"Aragorn, I will use my magic in anyway and by any means necessary to defend the people of Helm's Deep...but only if they want the help, only if they want to survive. Otherwise what am I fighting to save?"

" A witches wiles is a very frail thing for these people to base their hope on, Aurora." Aragorn started back up the steps.

"Then perhaps they should base it off the strangth of their leaders." She retaliated without turning to watch him move back up the steps. Aragorn stoppped on the top step adn turned back again to face her.

"Even their leaders have lost hope though."

"Theoden will eventually see that we..."Aurora started to comfort him but he quickly cut her off.

"I am not speaking of only Theoden." Aragorn sat down on the top step and heaved a great sigh." Legolas too has fallen into hopelessness." Aurora walked up the steps and kelt before him so they were eye-to-eye.

" Legolas is an elf. He cannot be touched by age or illness, yet now he faces the same danger as anyone else, and death which is so far from his people is now following him around like a shadow. He's scared Aragorn, scared for himself and for us, and for the people he will leave behind should he die. He has hope, he just has to be reminded of it." Aragorn stared at her unconvinced. Aurora shook her head."Stay here and think over what I have said. I'll go talk to Legolas and see if I can't get rid of some of his pessimism." Aurora stood up and gave hima pat on shoulder. As she walked up the remaining steps and into the fortress, she couldn't help but shake her head in wonder. Hearing all her own fears and doubts coming from Aragorn had done more for this world than Aragorn could have hoped for. Because he had unconsiously made up Aurora's undecided mind for her...THe other Dimensions can fend for themselves, tonight she had only to worry about Middle Earth.


	23. Dare to Hope

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the People from Lord of the Rings, so most of the stuff you recognize belongs to the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien. My people are Aurora, Chad, Arianna, Tansy, Ray, Judith, Hazel, Prince Bardis, and the witches Council. Please don't use any of these people or my ideas unless you ask. But if you ask...maybe.

Chapter 23: Dare to hope

Aurora quickly navigated the halls of Helm's Deep in her search for Legolas.He wasn't all that hard to find, his Elvish aura made him to stand out like a lit match in a dark room. She found him as he was leaving the armoury his back was turned to her as he made his hasty departure.

"Are you purposely avoiding me dear prince?" Legolas stopped instantly and turned to look at her. THe slight look of guilt that clouded his face didn't go unoticed by the witch. He calmly waited for her to catch up to him, then they continued to walk in the way Legolas had been headed. They walked in silence for a few moments before Aurora allowed herself to speak.

"I just spoke with Aragorn." It was a simple sentence that carried much weight with it. Upon hearing it Legolas let out a tense breath he had been holding. " May I ask what provoked you to saying something like that?"

" We are all thinking it Aurora, it's not such an unlikely possibilty."

"That's irrelevant Legolas.We may all be thinking it, but saying it in such a manner to the man that these people are following will annhilate every chance these people had.You're right though, it is a possibility, but only a possibility. There is a chance that we will make it through tonight." A dark look came over Legolas' face as she finished, a cross between understanding and annoyance.

"A chance yes, but a very slim one. You're a Foreseer Aurora, you know that even thought there are a million possible outcomes, only one can actually become a reality." Legolas' statement rang true, there were a million different outcomes, the better part of them didn't end well.But Aurora refused to give up. She allowed the tension that followed what her companion said to dissipate a little before she spoke again.

"Two thousand years ago there was a war. An InterDimensional war that engulfed the whole universe, save for two worlds. Yours, and the humans from my world." Legolas turned to look at her, slightly confused by the seemingly random change in subject. "Basically the war was Witches vs. Everybody else. They started the war, they attacked us. Do you know why? Because of my family, because of our ability to tell the future. They didn't see it as our seeing they future though, they thought we controlled it. They thought everything bad that happened was by our bidding. So they attacked us. Most people figured we would cast a spell and end the war before it really got started, but that would have just prooved their point. So we let them attack us with everything they had, we protected ourselves and kept the bloodshed to a minimum. The witches learned something that day. We learned why only two families out of all the witches had the Gift of Foresight, but we also learned of the shortcomings of the other races, you're all too logical. Most of the universes inhabitants, when confronted with an unusual or scary idea, will do anything in their power to avoid understanding it. Two thousand years ago they were confronted with the idea that we too were just slaves to the whims of the universe and the Beings, but logically to them it seemed that someone who could see the future should be able to control it. You were confronted with the idea of believing that we could win, but logically it is impossible. Just a few months ago it was logically impossible for there to be different Dimensions." Aurora reached out to touch Legolas arm and brought him to a stop, and turned him so they were facing each other. " Let go of your logic for just a few moments, a few seconds, and you will see that it isn't impossible to win. And that chance we have is far better than you thought. Dare to hope Legolas,dare to believe, it's what is going to keep us alive." Aurora turned away from him and walked away.

She made her back to the main meeting hall hoping maybe to find her students there. As she neared the door she could hear to male voices talking. Aurora recognized the one voice as belonging to King Théoden. Against her better judgement, Aurora decided to eavesdrop in his conversation.

"...the days have gone down in the west behind the hills, into Shadow. How did it come to this?" She didn't even need to hear the context of the dialogue before she showed up to know what he was talking about. She rolled her eyes and entered the meeting hall.

" I would tell you how it happened, but i'm afraid my skill lies in knowing the future, not the past." Aurora said, her voice quickly catching the attention of the two men in the room.

" Is it customary amongst you're people, Lady Aurora, to enter a conversation without request?"

"You asked a question, that to me didn't seemed to be aimed at any one person for an answer. And realistically speaking Théoden, it's a littled crammed in this place anyway, you have to expect that someone's gonna be listening in on what you say. You should just be thankful that it's someone who hasn't given up and would be brought down by you're doubting words. I swear you, Aragorn, and Legolas should consider getting a prescription for Prozac, and if you're already on it...up the dosage!" Théoden and Gambling just stared at her."Listen Théoden, in all truth, this was going to happen at some point. With Sauron having never been destroyed and no one bothering to keep an eye on Saruman it was going to happen. So I suggest you just man up and get ready to fight. It was nothing you did or didn't do that led to this, everyone in this damned fortress needs ot realize it's no ones fault, it just happened. The least you can do is have a little faith in your strength and the strength of your people. All is not lost." Aurora stopped to take a breath before continuing, but never got the chance to speak again. A commotion rose up in the courtyard just outside the meeting hall. A young man came charging up the stairs and into the room.

" My Lord!" He gasped, " My lord someone approaches the fortress!"


	24. Blessing that Looks like a Curse

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the People from Lord of the Rings, so most of the stuff you recognize belongs to the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien. My people are Aurora, Chad, Arianna, Tansy, Ray, Judith, Hazel, Prince Bardis, and the witches Council. Please don't use any of these people or my ideas unless you ask. But if you ask...maybe.

Chapter 24:Blessing that looks like Curse

Aurora just stared. That's all she could do was just stare. There was no doubt in her mind now that the Beings got thier kicks out of adding insane amounts os irony to her life. The man...elf... she hated most was standing before her with a band of Elvish warriors that were ready to fight for the people of Rohan. Aurora stood atop the stone steps that led down to the courtyard, two equally strong emotions fighting for dominance in her head, hatred and gratitude. She wouldn't lie to herself they nedded the help, but did it have to come from him! Aurora heard the pounding of feet behind her and recognized the approaching aura's of her students and Bardis, though she didn't turn her head away from watching Legolas, Aragorn, and Theoden greeting the new arrivals.

"Is that who I think it is?" Chad said as he stopped next to Aurora, who replied to his question with a simple nod.

" Well, hey, on the plus side he brought another army with him. Guess we're not as screwed as we first thought." Judith said in hopes of dispersing some of the building tension in the group.

"Judith's right. He's here and help and we desperatly need him. So I expect that you all will swallow your pride and treat him with some level of civility.Understood?" At this she turned away and looked at each of her students and then Bardis for a confirmation. " I said 'understood'?" she repeated when the latter gave no answer.

" I will not pretend to like that man while I am here. And it's not like they can leave."

"That doesn't give you the right to be an ass.And the last thing that these people need to see is you two going at it, they aren't in the best spirits as it is. So please, for my sake if nothing else, please try to be nice. Or just ignore him, just save me the headache." Aurora said exasperated.Bardis finally nodded and Aurora smiled. Ray gave a distinctive clearing of his voice to get thier attention as Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, Théoden, and Haldir walked by. As Haldir passed by her he gave her a cold murderous look that he didn't bother masking.Aurora could feel Bardis tense beside her, but he didn't address Haldir. After they had gone Aurora turned to her students.

" I intend to go see what it is they plan to do as far as battle strategies go, Bardis will come with me. Here's what I want you to do. Go warm up your magic, that way when they battle starts its ready to go. Along with the Yaderins though, there are other things your magic will need to attend to.All three of you will have to watch for ladders, because of course they will have them. Use your magic from allowing too many ladders to get set up along the wall.Chad, your Gift of Illusion will work wonders in spreading confusion and mayhem across the ranks of Saruman's army.Ray...well its not hard to figure out the uses of fire. Judith your task may be a little harder. Find a spot where you can easily connect to anyone's mind, because you will need to send messages back and forth via brain waves. Make sure that people on one side of the castle know what is happening on the other side and if thier assistance is required. All this you guys have to do while you're in the fight. Think you can handle it? If you feel yourself start to get drained, you leave the battle. Is that perfectly understood?" Her students nodded. Aurora started to turn away but paused in a moment of contemplation. She turned back to her students and gave them a hug." No teacher in history could possible be as proud of thier students as I am of mine." She released them and them shooed them off to get ready before heading off with Bardis to find the king.

They were all in the meeting hall discussing troop placement when Aurora and Bardis walked in. The immediate rise in tensions didn't go unnoticed.

"Princess, Bardis." Haldir said in an icy greeting.

"Haldir." They replied in unision, which was followed by a preganant moment of tense silence. Aragorn coughed to break the silence before tenitavley explaining the plan.

"Haldir brought some of the best archers in Middle Earth with him.We are going to spread them out across the wall in hopes that maybe the archers will take out some of the army before they reach here. Obviously we will add our own troops to thiers. I don't supposse either of you is any good with a bow?" Aragorn directed his question at Aurora and Bardis. Upon hearing him mention archery, Aurora's eyes automatically snapped up to meet Legolas', who gave her a bemused smile at the thought of thier private lessons. Aurora felt her face turn red and and didn't trust her voice to answer the question.

Bardis had watched Aurora for a reaction and had noted exactly where her gaze had fallen and the reaction that it had on her. Legolas' reaction had been noted as well, and Bardis intended on asking her about it later." I am a fairly good archer, but Aurora lacks the ability to use a bow correctly." Bardis answered thinking back to all the times he had tried to get Aurora to use a bow. Aurora gave him a sharp elbow in the side and glared at him out of the corner of her eye.

" Archery is not considered the choice means of battle amongst my people." She said quietly in defense. Aragorn nodded in understanding.

" Then we shall have Bardis join the archers. My concern is with your students and where they shall be placed, obviously we cannot expect them to be archers as you pointed out, but perhaps..."

"My students will be placed on the wall," Aurora cut him off before he could suggest finding a safe spot for them to defend. "That is where thier magic will serve us the best."

"It will be extremely dangerous for your students up there." Theoden said.

"I know, but they are ready for it." Theoden nodded in agreement with Aurora. The sound of the door easing open behind them drew thier attention to Ray peaaking his head in through the door.

"Um... Aurora?" Aurora motioned for him to come into the room entirely as she stepped away from the table and the group of men that surrounded it.

"What's up?" Aurora asked seriously, telling from the look on his face something was amiss.

"We have a tiny problem, well it's...it's not a problem...ahem... per se, it's just a ...set back."Ray stumbled over his sentence.

"What problem?" Before Aurora could could get out the question in its entirety a flask of lightning lit up the room followed by the crash of thunder. The problem Ray was refering to made itself all too aparent."Oh crap." Aurora said as she shook her head. "Where's a WeatherControl when you need them? Well don't worry about it.Maybe the storm is just passing over, if it's not then, thats's a bridge we have to cross when wer come to it. Just keep warming up in the mean time okay." Ray nodded and glared out the window at the clouds before he ducked back out the door.

"What was the problem?" Bardis asked as Aurora returned to the table.

"Rain." She said flatly, and Bardis nodded in understanding, the others looked at her as if she were crazy.

"How will rain affect us to the point of being a problem? We've all fought in rain before." Theoden said.

"No, no. Ray is a Pyro, he specializes in fire. But as good a student as he is, he is only sixteen and has a blue aura. If it rains, it will extremely difficult if not impossible for him to create fire."

"Well your whole party is proving to be worth thier weight in gold." Haldir mumbled in sarcasm.Bardis took a step towards him but Aurora intercepted him.Latching on to his arm she dragged him to the door.

"Stuff it Haldir, " She called back over her shoulder, " There are bigger problems here than your issues with me. Come on Bardis, lets go. Saruman's army will be here very soon, we need to be ready for him." Before Aurora could pull Bardis out the door after herself, he turned back to face the Marchwarden of Lorien.

"I suggest your back watch during battle, Haldir. Because I won't be stepping in the way to prevent an orc from putting a sword in it."


	25. Up against a wall

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the People from Lord of the Rings, so most of the stuff you recognize belongs to the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien. My people are Aurora, Chad, Arianna, Tansy, Ray, Judith, Hazel, Prince Bardis, and the witches Council. Please don't use any of these people or my ideas unless you ask. But if you ask...maybe

Chapter 25: Up against the Wall

Aurora gazed out at the plains near Helm's Deep, the land falling under night 's shadow. The approaching storm throwing its further darkness over them, making it much more difficult to see. Not that any light was needed to see the approaching glowing dots that foreshadowed the coming army. No normal army would have dared to show torches so boldly for fear of giving away their position. But with odds such as 10,000 against 300, caution couldn't be expected of them. Aurora turned her head skyward at a flash of lightning lit up the sky, she breathed deep to calm her nerves, and shifted- uncomfortable in the thick leather vest she had on to serve as some protection. She hated wearing chainmail or padded clothes or leather, or really any form of armor…it only seemed to constrict her. But even Aurora was willing to admit that some armor would be needed in the face of the coming enemy.

"Ready?" Aragorn asked as he walked behind her to his position on the wall. Aurora turned slightly to see his tense frame stop behind her.

"Depends on how you define ready." Was her only reply.

" I believe ready is defined by ones own personal moral and belief system. Ones beliefs may see ready as being ready to die…" Aragorn came to stand beside her as he spoke, and looked out across the plains at the same threat.

" I am _ready _to fight and _willing _to die if the cause needs. What now approaches is a far more deadly force than you or I have ever encountered before. Just because I speak of hope and triumph doesn't mean I don't see odds and lives at stake.I have spent my life trying to bring peace to this universe, I will not back down from my life's work just because the odds are bad." Aurora glanced down at her feet as her thoughts raced. " Of course it is a very humbling notion to realize that one's life work has been for nothing."

Aragorn placed his hand on her shoulder in a friendly way, " I cannot believe that any life spent working for peace is a life wasted. It is not for nothing, you can just not see the results. A pebble thrown into a pond doesn't stay in one place…it causes ripples that effect the entire water. One womans quest for true peace is that pebble, you can't see all the ripples you've made, that doesn't mean they don't exist."

"I can't help but feeling like I've failed in some way If Saruman can raise an army this big and march it across the land with so little opposition."

"Aurora, this is not your land or your world…the people who are to blame for letting Saruman get away with this is us. Men, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and Wizards alike let it slip right past us. We have done this to ourselves." Aragorn said as the ground began to rumble slightly with the coming army of Uruk hai and Yaderins. Aurora looked up at Aragron and smiled.

" Well," She said with a smile across her face, " He came here threatening us with an Army of 10,000…I say we send only 100 back to him."Aragron gave her a pat on the back and nodded in agreement, then continued his way down the wall checking in with the soldiers. Aurora turned back to the fortress and looked around to spot her students. Ray stood further down the wall surrounded by the men of Rohan. Judith was up a level behind them, a perfect view to oversee all the battle. Chad had gone with legolas and Gimli to stand with them. Then the rains came.

_"Are you all ready?" _Using the mind connection Judith had set up Aurora contacted her students.

"_ready" _was the unanimous reply. "_don't do anything stupid" _Chad mumbled, and Aurora just rolled her eyes.

"_we're in a war Chad, kinda an afterthought don't you think?"_ Chad didn't reply to her and she took that as his defeat.

The army was getting close now, she could make out individual units…and even some individual Uruk Hai. But no Yaderins.

"_Judith…take a really good look for me at that army…what do you see?"_

_"Orcs"_

_"Is that all?" _There was a pregnant moment of silence as Judith thoroughly scanned the army that drew ever nearer.

"_Yeah…just orcs why?_

Aurora cringed in disgust. Of course the Yaderins wouldn't be in the front…that would be easy. Why die when there are thousands of mindless orcs that can do all the dirty work before you get in there? Aurora didn't bother replying to Judith, no need to cause alarm. The army stopped, they were close now, really close. Then all at once, in unison they started to beat their chest plates and shields.

"They are just trying to scare you. They are stupid and have no skill with a blade and nothing to fight for!" Aurora shouted so the men around her could hear, " You have everything…don't let them take it!"

The archers notched their arrows and stood at a ready stance, picking a target…though shooting into the big moving mass would have been just as effective. Aragorn gave the call to hold just as an older man loosed his arrow. It flew true and slammed into an orc…and killed him almost instantly. There was a long pause, Aurora could swear a pin drop would be heard with crystal clear clarity in this silence. Then all of a sudden, like a tsunami, they came at once in a rush of movement and noise…the battle had begun


	26. In the heat of battle

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

Chapter 26: In the heat of battle

Arrows whizzed through that air, coming from both sides of the battle. An Arrow shot past Aurora's face and she had to lean slightly to assure herself she wouldn't be struck. If only she were a better archer she could help the elves, help Bardis, in this part of the battle instead of waiting for them to breach in order to be useful. But her people never found archery to be a desirable form of combat…in fact anything long range was unfavorable. Magic, being the main factor in a Witch's life, was close combat because it could be better controlled in close range, so Witch's were just more comfortable in close range combat. Aurora sighed with contempt at the idea that she had been raised to be controlled and responsible about her magic and abilities, and for that she felt as though so much of what she had wanted to accomplish she couldn't. But Saruman who couldn't have cared less about being responsible with his magic had almost taken over a world….

" _Don't__ think like that Aurora, "_ She had to tell herself, "_ He won't win…he can't win, and what he does win now he can't keep forever. Your close web of alliances will last well after you're dead."_ Which ironically…she thought to herself…might be tonight.

She heard Aragorn yell something in Elvish, and discovered that the Uruk's were using ladders. There seemed morbidly wrong to Aurora if she was somewhat excited to see this… Without a second though Aurora dug her sword into the first Uruk she saw, giving him a mortal wound and then swung to get the next one she saw. Slice and hack, slick and hack, Aurora found herself falling into a pattern. An orc grabbed her upper arm and with a quick thought and a burst of magic, incinerated him to dust. Aurora spun around sword in hand and hacked into an orc just Aragorn let out a yell. Aurora glanced over the wall expecting to see a great big war machine coming to knock the walls down, but the only thing she saw was an Uruk running toward the section of the wall she was on with what looked like the Olympic Torch in his hand.

Her Foresight was letting loud alarm bells off in her skull and a quick vision flashed before her eyes.

" OH shit!" Aurora turned and jumped off the wall in the direction of the keep. Not a second after she had jumped off the wall it exploded behind her, propelling her jump into a suicidal launch. She smacked into the ground with horrible force and felt the wind being crushed out of her as her body met the ground. She wheezed trying desperately to get air back into her, but sharp pains filled her lungs and she prayed she hadn't shattered a rib…

Her vision and hearing were a bit off but the sight of Uruks rushing her couldn't be mistaken. Someone was pulling her to her feet and she was glad for the support since her legs weren't totally responsive. Bardis held her up for a moment to make sure she could stand on her own before letting go.

"Where is your sword?" Bardis asked as the rushing Uruks got closer. And Aurora realized that she had gone one way..and her sword had gone another. Aurora pulled out her long knives…very close combat it was then. Aurora and Bardis charged into the mass of uruks together, and it was wonderfully comforting knowing her best friend, the closest thing she had to a brother was there. Bardis let out a cry of pain which drew her attention automatically from the Uruks in front of her. The sight chilled her bones.

Bardis was standing face to face in battle with a Yaderin. The one creature that had taken everything important from her in the past, and it was staring at her best friend. Panic rose in Aurora as she saw the blood that was soaking the side of Bardis' tunic, a wound that had been caused no doubt by the incredibly long nails of the Yaderin. Aurora quickly killed any immediate threat that was around he rand turned her attention to the Yaderin. It didn't look as though it knew she was there yet, it was watching Bardis too closely. It swung at the elf who dodged away easily, the Yaderin was thrown off guard and Aurora took her chance. She rushed the thing with the intent to kill, but it spun quickly and slashed at her in retaliation and Aurora was forced to bring he knife up to block. The nails caught the knife for a moment and the two combatants were locked together. The Yaderin looked at her and surprise was written all across his face and as then replaced by pure hate.

" Hello." Aurora said before using her other hand to touch the rotten flesh of the creature. That simple touch pulled both of them into the Netherworld. She let go and was quickly back in Middle Earth, she turned and Bardis nodded at her before charging up the steps to the wall. Aurora followed after.

"Fall back to the keep!" Aurora heard Theoden's call as she reached the top of the steps and heard Aragorn repeat the call in Elvish. Aurora spun around and came face to face with none other than Haldir. They glanced at each other a bit surprised before Aurora noticed the orc coming up behind Haldir. She dodged around him and severed his mid section but as he fell to the ground it took a swing at Haldir who had to move to dodge it. That was when the second Uruk appeared.

"Haldir, no!" But it was too late. Before Haldir could make a move the uruk's sword cut deep into Haldir's back. His eyes connected with hers, a look Aurora swore would haunt her forever: when you know you will die. Haldir knew he would die, and the way that knowledge filled his eyes chilled Aurora to the bone. She dove around him and blasted the uruk with a pulse of magic that Aurora could hear break ever bone in the orc's body. Aurora grabbed Haldir as he started to fall to his knees.

"Haldir! Hang on for just a minute, I'll get you to the hall and find a healer for you. You are going to be okay!" Even she didn't believe herself. But she had to try.

"No. It is too late."

" NO, no, I can save you!" Desperate, she was so desperate to save him.

" Save this world instead. I hated you….for no reason….you…can save my world…." His breathing was labored and she could feel him slipping away into death. Aragorn suddenly appeared by her side, a look of anguish on his face when he saw Hadir.

"Aurora, " Haldir's words were barely audible," I….I forgive you."

Those words struck her harder than anything had before, and she sat in a stunned silence reassuring herself she had heard right. She had, Haldir forgave her…he had lifted the burden of guilt from her…forever. Aurora sighed, with both anguish and relief. Then Aragorn grabbed her arm, and they both ran.


	27. As her Future is revealed

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

Chapter 27: As her Future is revealed…

Aurora split from Aragorn as they raced further into the Keep. She bolted up a set of stairs staying ahead of the mass of orcs, and smacked into someone as she rounded a corner.

" Aurora!" Ray regained his footing after the collision.

" The lower area has been breached…where are you going?"

"The gate, it looks to me like they are going to try to ram it in."Ray continued to inch the direction he had been headed before they hit each other.

"That's fine, where are the others?"

"Haven't seen anyone but Chad, he's over on the wall over there." Ray pointed before he hurried back over to the gate and Aurora headed in Chad's direction. As Aurora looked over the wall at the Uruk's trying to get in, she noticed just how busy Saruman had been working on his army's invasion. The war machines they had were far ahead of Middle Earth's time…and she realized with a sickening feeling that Saruman had been to her world recently to know how to build them, and that included the bomb that had blown up t he wall.

"Chad!" He spun to look at Aurora when she called his name.

"Good, for a minute I didn't think you had left the lower levels. I got out of there right after the explosion…knew we would have to withdraw." A loud twang sounded and a huge grappling hook shot up over the walls a few hundred feet away.

" Have you seen Judith?"

"She stayed to the high ground thankfully. Last I spoke to her though she was moving…didn't really get a chance to exchange words. Have you seen the Yaderins?"

"Only one, " Aurora said as pulled out her long-knives as the Uruks started to put up ladders.

"Judith said they were way to the back, but she could see them now…we need to do something so they never reach the walls."

" I was thinking the same thing, we should…" But Aurora's sentence was cut off as an arrow cut dangerously close to her face, she ducked back as it flew right in front of her nose. She turned to see a ladder being put up where she stood. As she glanced around she saw that there were a lot of ladders and with the grappling hooks and wires the men couldn't remove them. Stepping up to the wall she placed a hand on the cold wet rock and allowed the magic to flow freely through her fingers. She created a magic pulse that shot through the wall shattering the metal grappling hooks and snapping the wires that held the ladders up. The men around her were shook up a bit, but every ladder within a 300 foot radius went down. She turned to speak to Chad, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She felt a ripple in magic and out of the corner of her eye saw a massive fire ball near the causeway. That could only be Ray. She ran across the wall to where the causeway was and looked over to see, not Ray, but Aragorn and Gimli suspended from a rope. She turned and saw Legolas trying to lift them by himself, and quickly ran over to help him lift the two men over. When she grabbed the end of the rope Legolas glanced over his shoulder.

"Still alive?" He yelled over his shoulder almost in disbelief.

"Surprised?" She asked as she reached over and hauled the man and dwarf over the wall.

" Fall Back! Fall Back!" Aurora glanced back and saw the Uruk's break through the door and cussed under her breath. Aragorn grabbed her arm and they all ran for the inner keep, and Aurora entered the Great Hall her mind reeled at the thought of losing. She was relieved to see her students and Bardis had made it safely. She looked at the other men in the room, men and boys alike, and knew that something needed to be done. Haldir in his dyeing moment had forgiven her, but her had also laid at her feet the charge of protecting this world. All her life she had fought to protect people like this, and now it was the moment of truth…and she knew what she had to do.

" Shit, what do we do now?" Chad asked as he gasped to catch his breath. But Aurora wasn't listening to him, she didn't acknowledge that he had even spoken…she was looking across the room.

"Aurora?" Judith tentatively said her name, but Aurora still did not respond. She knew what she had to do , it was the only choice…It had always been a symbol of fear in her life. When she thought of that, it only rebirthed bad memories, but now it might be the only thing saving this world. Aurora silently walked across the with every eye in the room watching her. She picked up her bag and pulled out the object that had in almost every sense of the term, ruined her life.

The Magic Book of Spells felt warm in her hand, and she knew the magic was reacting to her touch. She took a deep breath and mentally committed herself to her insane thought. As she turned she could hear her students gasp.

"No" Was all Judith could utter. They knew what it meant. Chad shook his head violently and stepped in her way as she headed for the door.

"No Chad, don't stop me. Don't even try."

"You can't do this." He said, blocking her path." You can't leave us like that."

"This world needs…"

"OUR world _needs _you Aurora, your students need you, your people need you. Don't go and kill yourself!"Chad hissed.

"You don't understand. This is why I' here though. All that time ago in New York, that vision I had seen that brought me back here in the first place…it was a vision of this war! I wasn't supposed to prevent anything else in the world like I though…it was this war. I was supposed to be here for this battle, to change the outcome. I've been so foolish this whole time, trying to change the little things…" Aurora shook her head. Then she reached over and gave Chad a hug. "You are going to make a great leader for our people. I am so proud of you…of all of you" You said gesturing to the rest of her students that were present.

"Please…no…" Was all Chad could mutter, but the look in his eyes said that he too knew it was necessary.

" Be strong for our people. You three will decide the fate of our people, you are the future…be strong" Aurora said and turned away from them.

"Aurora you can't go out there!" Legolas said stepping in her way of the door. She glanced up at him and smiled. Then she reached up and kissed him on the check.

"Yes I can, and yes I will…you can't change fate Legolas, I can." She stepped around him and walked out the door with the Book in her hands. Bardis didn't speak up to stop her, knowing her for so many years he knew that Aurora dealt in fixing the future and only she knew how to do it, if he stopped her more than just this world was at stake. She glanced back only once, and locked eyes with Aragorn. For all the mistrust between them when the journey had started, when their eyes locked, there was a deep and mutual respect, and a silent message passed one to the other. The she turned and walked out the door. With a flick of her wrist the doors slammed shut behind her and were sealed with magic. As they slammed she could hear Ray let out a cry of agony, and a tear slid down Aurora's cheek as she feared she would never see them again.


	28. Her true power

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people from Lord of the Rings. These people belong to the beloved J.R.R.Tolkien. My only people are Aurora, Chad,Tansy,Arianna, Judith,Ray,Hazel,Prince Bardis,and the witch's council. Please don't use them without my permission. but if you ask...maybe.

Chapter 28: Her true power…

It was an amazing feeling. To not be afraid, to be…ready. Aurora knew she was going to die, but it didn't scare her…it energized her. There was no uncertainty, just the notion that she had a job to do, a world to save. As she walked down the steps outside the hall, the Book in her hands, watching a surge of uruks and yaderins come at her, she knew what she had committed herself to. With a deep breath she closed her eyes and allowed all the magic that ran through the earth and stone below her to gather inside of her. Her fingers released the Book, but it did not fall to the floor.

It knew what she wanted, and responded. As if held by the fingers of magic itself it held a place in front of her, floating on air. The silver clasps on the front undid themselves and the pages flew open to the page Aurora wanted. Aurora opened her eyes and the uruks froze, _everything _froze.

Aurora had stopped time.

Knowing that maintaining this spell would drain her in minutes, it was a race against time to create her second spell. Resting her hand on the book in front of her, Aurora started to speak the spell, allowing the magic from the earth and the Book flow into her. The wind started to pick up, swirling around her in gale force winds. Continuing to chant, the winds started to take a different form…small images started to form inside it, pictures of the future. Aurora watched as the images swirled around her and with the hand not touching the book, she reached out and touched an image and was instantly surrounded by a frozen moment in time in the image…Aurora started to change the future.

Every image she touched she changed something in the moment…a thought, a motion, a gust of wind. As she changed one scene others began to adjust to fit the outcome of each change made in the other. Aurora continued to adjust, forming everything for a better outcome…but as she touched one image and froze. The moment she was frozen in revealed everything about the time…and Aurora couldn't change it, nothing could have made the moment for perfect…so she left it be.

She magic was draining fast…her fingers were starting to turn icy cold and it was becoming difficult to breathe, she body was shutting down to conserve energy to maintain the spell that she had started. She began working faster and faster, tweeking things as fast as she could and she felt her body continue to…well…to die.

Finally satisfied with what she had changed, Aurora cut off the spell and the wind and images faded, but time remained frozen…she had one last spell to cast. Reaching out with her mind she felt the presence of every single Yaderin in a square mile…and there were quite a few of them in the area. Latching on to them mentally, she cast the spell to send them into the Netherworld…

As the darkness of the Netherworld closed in, her tired and aching body begged her to stop. To just remain in this world…not to cast a spell to go back, but she had to. Bringing herself out of the darkness, her body began to quake and she fell to her knees, her body unable to keep her alive and casting the spell at the same time. No matter what happened, Aurora knew her body would never recover from this, it had shut down so many things. Her lungs were burning and her heart felt as though it was pushing lead through her veins, and her eyes clouded…

With a quick thought she moved her body from in front of the great hall to a more remote area of the keep, and unfroze time. As everything set itself back in motion, Aurora hit the ground.

And for the first time, she allowed herself to fall into the dark bliss that she knew was death.

**Author's Note: I couldn't help myself I had to end this part this way****, sorry it was short****. But don't fret, the third installment will be up in a matter of days so please stay tuned. ****Then you will all know what happened to Aurora, and what the fate of Middle Earth is now that she is dead…. Or is she? You'll just have to wait and find out…. In: _Lady of the Book Part 3: New Dawn_**


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